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·MODERN
SCIENCE
AND MODERN
THOUGHT
BY
S. LAING
9
AUTHOR OF "PROBLEMS OF TIC FUTURE,
A B10DERN ZOROASTRIAN,"
HONAN ORIGINS," I'ra
TITII A DIOGRAPITICAL NOTE OY THE AUTIIOR BY
EDWARD CLODD
(ISSUED FOR TIIE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LTD.)
LONDON
IL
WATTS AND CO., 17, JOIINSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.

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·INTRODUCTORY NOTE The carcer of the author of this book was long, varied, and distinguisheri. His father, Samuel Lainy, after service in the Peninsular War, became, on tho leath of an elder brother, Malcolm Laing, who was author of a meritorious. "History of Scotland,” owner of the family estates in Orkney, whero, for a time, he developed the kelp industry with success. lle is remembered as the author of " Travels in Sweden and Norway," which may still be read with advantage for its trustworthy sketches of the general conditions of life in Scandinavia sixty years ago. But, from the stanu point of scholarship, ho did more valuable work in translating the "Heimskringla," or chronicles of the kings of Norway, compiled in the twelfth century by an Icelandic poet-historian, Snorri Sturleson. The lyrical portions of this old saga ere translated by the subject of this brief notico. After some vicissitudes of fortune, the father settled in Edinburgh, where Samuel Laing was born on 17th December, 1811. That is the date given by his friend Mr. C. C. Macrae, in a privately-printed memoir issued in 1899, and may be accepted as against the date 12th December, 1812, which is given in the Dictionary of National Biography.” 1 His education was begun at Houghton-lo- Spring Grammar School, whence he passed as a “pensioner" (the term means one who pays for his cominons out of his own income) to St. John's College, Cambridge. He graduated as second wrangler and second Sinith's prizeman, and in 1834 was elected a Fellow of his College. For three years he was a mathematical "coach," and in June, 1837, was called to the bar, where his acumen seized an opening as counsel in connection with the many railway schemes then agitating the community. The place and prominence which he thus secured led to his start in political lifo as secretary to Nr. IIenry Labouchere (afterwards Lord Taunton) who was then (1839) President of the Board of Trade, and in the following year he was appointed Counsel to the newly created Railway Department of that Board. Insistence on the detail of the enormous volume of work which this involved is needless here, but an example of its onerous natyre may be cited from Mr. Macrae. “In one session, 18.15, the Board reported on 331 separate Bills for various railways, and on these no less than 240 separato reports were presented, each of which, supplying In the ninth edition of "Mon of the Time" (1875) the date 1810 is given.

·iv INTRODUCTORY NOTE exhaustive analyses and criticisms was entirely drafted by Mr. Laing." His reputation as a great railway administrator was yet to be mado, but his influence was manifest in many ways, notably in securing the daily running of the “Parliamentary" or penny a mile trains, and it is admitted that had his counsels been heeded, the results of the crisis which followed the wild railway speculation of that time would have been less disastrous. In 1848, he accepted the Chairmanship and Managing Directɔrship of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, a position which, in the first instance, he held till 1855. Three years before his retirement therefrom ho entered Parliament as Liberal member for Wick, but in 1857 his farsighted and creditable opposition to the war against China cost him his seat. Two years afterwards he regained it, becoming in June, 1860, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, a position which was exchanged for the important post of Finance Minister of India, in succession to the eininent economist James Wilson, father-in-law of Walter Bagehot, a man never to be named without words of regret for the griovouy loss to literature and economics which his early death involved. Wilson had been carried-off by dysentery in August, 1860, and Sanuel Laing's reputation marked him as tho fittest man to continue the task of reform rendered necessary by the financial disorganisation into which the Mutiny and other serious causes had thrown the revenue and expenditure of India. By prudent economies and readjustment of taxes,,Laing converted a deficit into a surplus, but the laborious work so told upon his health that his return to England was con pulsory. In 1865 he re-entered Parliament, and in 1867 resumed his old position as Chairman of the Brighton Railway, from which he retirel only three years before his death, which occurred on the 6th August, 1897. He lost his seat in 1868, and four years passed before he was back at St. Stephen's; this time as represcutative of Orkney and Shetland, for which constituency he sat until his final retirement from political life in 1885. It was then, when most men have warrant for margin of rest as fringe to an active career, that Samuel Laing began the writing of a series of volumes popularising the discoveries of modern science and the conclusions based on those discoveries. Of these, “Modern Science and Modern Thought " was the earliest, and remains the most acceptable. The veteran author wrote with no prentice hand. From time to time he had publishıcd pamphlets on political and social questions ; his long training in the drafting of reports, and in the clear and compendious presentment of abstruse matters, was enviable qualification for the self-imposed task of his old aye. llence his skilful disentanglement of essentials from accidentals, and of the general from the paiticular, rendered his books as useful as they were opportune. Some twenty years before this he had done good and original work in science. Under the title of " Prehistoric. Remains in Caithness," he published, in 1866, an account of stone implements, rude pottery, human and other bones found in "kists" in burial mounds, and in "middens" or shell-refuse heaps, in the neighbourhood of Keiss Castlo. To this Professor lluxley.

·INTRODUCTORY NOTE . added a supplement of fifty pages, describing and illustrating the human skulls, nine in all, and other portions of skeletons, some of which were grouped as Iberian or pre-Celtic. Mr. Laing expressed an opinion, warranted by the split bones discovered among miscellancous witnesses of feasting, that "these aboriginal savages were occasionally cannibals." Ilis interest in science was, therefore, no new-born thing, and the prominence given to the human theme in all his books was the sequenco (interrupted by the claims of important commercial undertakings on his time) of years of observation, 6f reading, and of reflection. The main part of tho book now reprinted deals with man physically and psychically, and the titles of three out of its four successors—namely, “A Modern Zoroastrian” (1887), "Antiquity of Man" (1891), and "Iluman Origins" (1892)-evidence what a foremost place the large question of mau's evolution and destiny filled in his mind. The first part of “Modern Science and Modern Thought” is now subjected only to such revision as is required by the advance of knowledge during the last seventeen ycar's. The portions thus affecter are those dealing with the continuity of Paläolithic and Neolithic man in Continental Europe; with the recent discovery of remains, probably of an intermediate form between man and ape, in Java ; and with the remarkable discoveries in Babylonia, which appear to accord to that empire an earlier civilisation than that of Egypt. But the general conclusions, as stated by the venerable author, are strengthened by the newer evidence. In the second part, only a few verbal corrections have been macle, since the arguments which are therein advanced against the thicory of the supernatural origin of the several documents making-up the New Testament, and, consequently, against the claims as to revelation ulvanced on its behalf, need neither addition or revision. And for the rest, we have the author's confession of faith, and sage remarks on motives to right conduct, making appeal to minds of the most opposite beliefs in a spirit which must ensure sympathy, if it does not win assent. The writer of this note had not the advantage of Samuel Laing's personal acquaintance, and it is, therefore, permissiblo to draw upon Mr. Macrue's memoir , for some presentment of the man. “Ile had the healthy body as well as the healthy mind; from youth till advanced age ho delighted in all field sports. lle was fond of goud art and music ; his tastes in both were classical and old fashioned. Beethoven and the Italian operatic composers were his favouritos; but lie could not tolerate the formlessness of the modern school led by Wagner.' IIis conversation had distinction; lie detested gossip and idle talle. Ho had a retentive memory, and his accuracy, even to historical details, was astonishing.' His favourite authors were Scott and Tennyson ; in latter life, however, his reading was mainly restricted to scientific books. His charitics, always unostentatious, 'were, in proportion to his means, liboral,' and their variety manifested his toleration. Open-minded, he liarbourul ·vi INTRODUCTORY NOTE . never a prejudice : nor was his equanimity ever ruftled, so that the idea of a Stoic sage had become with him a habit of daily life and conduct.' "He believed in the people—in the masses—in their broad common-sonse and honest judgment on large questions which they understood, and it was mainly to their instruction that he looked in the books that he wrote. His ideals were a plain, simple männer of life, manly conduct and honest work. His own long life was throughout an example of these things, and as he had lived, so he continued to the end."" EDWARD CLOpD. June 21st, 1902 AUTHOR'S PREFACE The object of this book is to give a clear and concise view of the principal results of Modern Science, and of the revolution which they have effected in Modern Thought. I do not pretend to discover fresh facts or to propound new theories, but simply to discharge the humbler though still useful task of presenting what has become the counmon property of thinking minds, in a popular shape, which may interest those who lack time and opportunity for studying special subjects in more complete and technical treatises. I have endeavoured also to give unity to the subjects treated of, by connecting them with leading ideas : in the case of Science, that of the gradual progress from human standards to those of almost infinite space and duration, and the prevalence of law throughout the universe to the exclusion of supernatural interference; in the case of Thought, the bearings of these discoveries on old creeds and philosophies, and on the practical conduct of life. The endeavour to show how inuch of religion can be saved from the shipwreck of theology las been the main object of the second part. Those who are acquainted with the scientific literature of the day will at once see how much I have been indebted to Darwin, Lyell, Lubbock, Huxley, Proctor, and other well-known writers. In fact, tho first part of this book does not pretend to bo more than a compendious popular abridgment of their works. I prefer, therefore, acknowledging ray obligations to them once for all, rather than encumbering each page by detailed references. The second part contains more of my own reflections on the important sub jects discussed, and must stand or fall on its own merits rather than on authority. I can only say that I have endeavoured to treat these subjects in a reverential spirit, and that the conclusions arrived at are the result of a conscientious and dispassionate endeavour to arrive at "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

·The POBLIC LIBRART. ESTD. 1902 NAU, HOWRAH. MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT PART 1.-MODERN SCIENCE verses--- Seasons. CIIAPTER I conception of the universe, therefore, was of a flat, circular earth, surrounded SPACE by an ocean stream, in the centre of a Priinitive Ideas--Natural Standar ia--Dimen. crystal sphere which revolved in twentysions of the Earth-Of Sun and Solar four hours round the earth, and in which System-- Distance of Fixed Stars --Their the heavenly bodies were fixed as lights Order and Size--Nebulæ and other Uni for man's use to distinguish days and -The Telescope and the Infinitely The mascimum idea of space was Great--The Microscope and the Infinitely therefore deterinined by the size of the Small--Uniforinity of Law-Law of Gravity earth circle which was necessary to take- -Acts through all Space--Double Stars, Comets, and Meteors-Has acted through in all the regions known at the time, with all Time. a little margin beyond for the ocean stream, and the space between it and the The first idcas of space were naturally crystal vault, required to enable the latter taken from the standard of man's own to revolve freely. In the time of Horner, impressions. The inch, the foot, the cubit, and the early Greek philosophers, this the fathom, were the lengths of portions would probably require a maximum of of his own body, obviously adapted for space of from 5,000 to 10,000 niles. This measuring objects with which he came in dimension has been expanded by modern direct contact. The mile was the dis science into one of as many millions, or tance traversed in 1,000 double paces; the rather hundreds of millions, as there were league the distance walked in an hour. formerly single miles, and there is no sign The visible horizon suggested the idea that the limit has been reached. that the earth was a flat, circular surface How has this wonderful result been like a round table; and as experience attained, and how do we feel certain that showed that it extended beyond the it is true? Those who wish thoroughly limits of a single horizon, the conception to understand it must study standard was enlarged and the size of the table works on Astronomy, but it may be increased so as to take in all the countries possible to give some clear idea of the known to the geography of successive processes by which it has been arrived periods. at, and of the cogency of the reasoning In like manner the sun, moon, and by which we are compelled to accopt stars were taken to be at the distance at facts so contrary to the first impressions which they appeared ; that is, first of the of our natural senses. visible horizon, and then of the larger The fundamental principle upon which circle to which it had been found neces all measurements of space, which are sary to expand it. It was never doubted beyond the actual application of human that they really revolved, as they seemed standards, depend, is this : that distant to do, round this flat earth circle, dipping objects change their bearings for a given under it in the west at right, and re change of base, more or less in proporappearing in the east with the day. The tion as they are less or more distant.

·2 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERY THOUGIIT Suppose I am on board a steamer sailing down the Thames, and I see two churches on the Essex coast directly opposite to 37W NNE not change its apparent place perceptibly. But if I walk the same distance in a seni circle, what was originally op my left hand will now be on my right, or will have changed its apparent place by 180°. If I walk my mile on the circumference of a circle of twice the size, I shall have traversed a quadrant or one-fourth part of it, and changed the bearing of the distant object exactly half as much, or 90°, and so on, according to the size of the circle, which may therefore be readily calculated from the length that must be travelled along it to shift the bearing of the remote object by a given amount, say of 10 If, for instance, by travelling 65 miles from north to south we lower the apparent height of the Pole star 1°, it is mathematically certain that we have travelled this 65 miles, not along a flat surface, but along a circle which is 360 times 65, or, in round numbers, 24,000 miles in circumference and 8,000 wiles in diameter. And if, whenever we travel the saine distanco on a meridian or line drawn on the circumference froin north to south, we find the same displacement of 1°, we may be sure that our journey his been in a true circle, and that the me, or bearing due north, the first of which is one mile, and the other ten miles, distant. I sail one nuile duc east and again take the bearings. It is evident that the first church will now bear northwest, or have apparently moved through 45°, i.e., one-eighth part of the circumference of a complete circle, assuming this circumference to be divided into 360 equal parts or degrees; while the more distant church will only have altered its bearing by a much less amount, easily determined by calculation, but which may be taken roughly at 5° instead of 45°. The branch of mathematics known as Trigonometry enables us in all cases, without exception, where we know the apparent displacement or change of beuring of a distant object produced by taking it from the opposite ends of a known base, to calculate the distance of that object with as inuch ease and certainty as if we were working a simple suid af rule of three. The first step is to know our buse, and for this purpose it is essential to know the size and form of the earth on which we live. These are determined by very simple considerations. If I walk a mile in a straight line, an object at a vast distance like a star will B Horizon Zenit C forin of the carth is a perfect sphero of these dimensions.

·SPACE . Now, this is very nearly what actually distance of 93,000,000 miles. It weighs occurs when we apply methods of scien as much as 332,000 earths. Tific accuracy to measure the earth. The The same method gives us the distance, true form of the earth is not exactly size, and weight of the moon and planets; spherical, but slightly oval or flatter at the and it gives us a fresh standard or base poles, being almost precisely the form it from which to measure still greater diswould have assumed if it had been a fluid tances. The distance of the earth from the mass rotating about a north and south sun being 93,000,000 miles, and its orbit axis. But it is very nearly spherical, the an ellipse nearly circular, it follows that true polar diameter being 7,899 miles, it is in mid-winter, in round mumbers, and the true equatorial diameter 7,926 186,000,000 miles distant from the spot miles, so that for practical purposes we where it was at midsummer. What may say roughly that the earth is a difference in the bearings of the fixed spherical body, 24,000 miles round and stars is caused by traversing this enor: 8,000 miles across. mous base ? This gives us a fresh standard from The answer is, in the immense majority which to start in measuring greater of cases, no ditierence at all ; i. e., their disdistances. Precisely as we inferred the tance is so vastly greater than 186,000,000 distance of the church from the steamer miles that a change of bilse to this extent in our first illustration, we can infer the makes no change perceptible to the most distance of the sun froin its displacement refined instruments in their bearings as caused by obscrving it from two opposite scen from the earth. But the perfection ends of à base of known length on the of modern instruments is such, that a earth's surface. This is the essential change of even one second, or go outh part principle of all the calculations, though of one degree, in the annual parallax, as when great accuracy is sought for, very it is called, of any fixed star, would refined methods of applying the principle certainly be detected. are required, turning mainly on tho This corresponds to a distance of 206,265 extent to which the apparent occurrence times the length of the base of 186,000,000 of the same event such as the transit of miles, or of 20,000,000,000,000 miles, Venus over the sun's disc--is altered by är distance which it would take light, observing it from different points at moving at the rate of 186,000 miles per known distances from one another on second, three years and eighty-three days the earth's surface. The result is to show to traverse. There is only one star in that the sun's distance from the earth is, the whole heavens, a bright star called in round numbers, 93,000,000 miles. This Alpha, in the constellation of the Centaur, is not an exact statement, for the carthi's which is known to be as near as this. Its orbit is not an exact circle, but the sun annual parallax is 0.976", or very nearly and earth really revolve in ellipses about 1", and therefore its distance very nearly the common centre of gravity. The sun, 20 millions of millions of miles. All tho however, is so much larger than the earth other stars, of which many millions are that this centre of gravity falls within visible through powerful telescopes, are the sun's surface, and, practically, the further off than this. earth describes an ellipse about the sun, There are about cight other stars which the 93,000,000 miles being the mean dishave been estimated by astronomers to tance, and the eccentricity or deviation give indications of an annual parallax of from the exact circular orbit, being about less than half a second, and therefore one-sixtieth part of that mean distance. whose distances may be somewhere from This distance, again, gives us the size of twice to ten times as great as that of, the sun, for it is easily calculated how Alpha Centauri. From the quantity of large the sun inust be to look as large as it light sent to us from these distances, does at a distance of 93,000,000 miles. some approximation has been made to The result is, that it is a sphere of about their intrinsic splendour as compared 865,000 miles in diameter. Its bulk, there with our sun. That of Alpha Centauri fore, exceeds that of the earth in the pro is computed to be nearly 2 times; that portion of 1,300,000 to 1. Its density, or of Sirius, the brightest star in the the quantity of matter in it, may be heavens, 393 times ; greater than that of calculated from the elect of its action on the sun. These figures may or may not the earth under the law of gravity at the represent greater size or greater intensity ·MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT of light, and they are quoted only to give some idea of the vastness of the scale of the universe of which our solar system fornis a minute part. Nor does even this nearly fathom the depth of the abysses of space. Telescopes enable us to see a vast multitude of stars of varying size and brilliancy. It is computed by astronomers that there are at least one hundred millions of stars within the range of the telescopes used by Herschel for gauging the depth of space, and a thousand millions within the range of the great retlecting telescope of Lord Rosse. As many as eighteen different orders of magnitude have been counted, and the more the power of telescopes is increased the more stars are seen. Now, as there is no reason to suppose that this extreme variety of brilliancy arises from extreme dillorence of size of one star from another, it must be principally owing to difference of distance, so that a star of the eighteenth magnitude is presumably many times further off than any of the first magnitude, the distance of the nearest of which has been proved to be something certainly not less than 20,000,000,000,000 miles. In fact, these stellar distances are so great that in order to bring them at all within the range of human imagination we obliged to apply another standard, that of the velocity of light. Light can be shown to travel at the rate of about 178 millions of miles in 16 minutes, for this is the difference of the time at which we see the same periodical occurrence, as for instance the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, according as the earth happens to be at the point of its orbit nearest to Jupiter, or at that farthest away. The velocity of light is therefore about 186,000 miles per second, a velocity which has been fully confirmed by direct experiments inade on the earth's surface. These enormous distances are reckoned, therefore, by the number of years which it would take light to come from them, travelling as it does at the rate of 186,000 miles a second. The nearest fixed star, Alpha Centauri, is seen by a ray which left it three years and eighty-three days ago, and has been travelling over since at the rate of 186,000 miles per second. Sirins, the brightest of the fixed stars, if the determination of its annual parallax is correct, is six tires further off, and is seen, not as it exists to-day, but as it existed nearly twenty years ago; and the light we now see from somo of the stars of the eighteenth magnitudcan hardly have left them less than 2,000 years ago. Even this, however, is far from "ex. hausting our conception of the magnitude of space. Beyond the stars which are near enough to be seen separately, powerful telescopes show a galaxy in which the united lustre of myriads of stars is only perceptible as a faint nebulous gleam. And in addition to stars the telescope shows us a number of nebulæ, or faint patches of light, sometimes globular, sometimes in wreaths, spiral wisps, and other fantastic shapes, scattered about the heavens. Some of these are resolved by powerful telescopes into clusters of stars inconceivably numerous and remote, which appear to be separate universes, like that of which our sun and fixed stars form one. Others again cannot be so resolved, and are shown by the spectroscope to be enormous masses of glowing gas, or cosmic matter, out of which other universes are in process of formation. We are thus led, step by step, to enlarge our ideas of space from the primitive conception of miles and leagues, until the imagination fails to grasp the infinite vastness of the scale upon which the material universe is really constructed. If the telescope takes us thus 'far beyond the standards of unaided sense in the direction of the infinitely great, the microscope, aided by calculations as to the nature of light, heat, electricity, and chemical action, takes us as far in the opposite direction of the infinitely small." The microscope enables us actually to see magnitudes of the order of loptopth of an inch as clearly as the naked eye can see those of yth. This introduces us into a new world, where we can see a whole universe of things both dead and live of whose existence our forefathers had no suspicion. A glass of water is seen to swirin with life, and be the abode of bacteria, amoeba, rotifers, and other minute cre:tures, which dart about, feed, digest, and propagite their species in this small world of their own, very much as jelly-fish and other humble organisms do in the larger seas. The air also is shown to be full of innumerable germs and spores floating in it, and ready to be deposited and spring into life, are ·SPACE 5 wherever they find a seed-bed fitted to periods, in obedience to the same law. receive them. Given a favourable soil in Clouds of meteoric dust revolvo in lixed 'the human frame, and the invisible seeds orbits, determined by the law of gravity of scarlet fever, cholera, and small-pox as surely as the moon revolves round the ripen into full crops, just as the germs of earth, and the earth round the sun. a fungus invade the potato crops of a This is a conclusion of such fundawhole district, and lead to Irish famines mental importance that it is desirable to and the extermination of more than a give the uninitiated reador some clear million of human beings. idea of what it means, and how it is The microscope also enables us to see arrived at. Newton's great discovery, the very beginnings of life and watch its the law of gravity, is this--that all primitive clement, protoplasm, in the matter acting in the mass attracts other form of it minute speck of jelly-like matter directly as the annount of attractmatter, through which pulsations are ing matter, and inversely as the squirre constantly passing, and we can watch the of the distance. That is, 2 or 2,000,000 transformations by which an elementary tons attract with twice the force of i or cell of this substance splits up, inulti 1,000,000 tons at the same distance, but plies, and by a continued process of with only one-fourth of the same force development builds up with these cells at double, and one-ninth at triple the all the diversified forms of vegetable and distance. animal life. How is this law proved ? This will be But far as the microscope carries us best answered by explaining how it was down to dimensions vastly sinaller than discovered. The force of gravity, or those of which the ordinary senses can attraction of the earth on bodies at the take cognizance, te modern sciences of carth's surface, is it known quantity. light, heat, and chemistry carry, us as The whole matter in a spherical body much farther downwards, is the telescope attracts exactly is if it were all collected carries us upwards beyond the boundaries at the centre. The force of gravity at the of our solar system into the expanses of carth's surface is, therefore, that of the stars and nebulæ. We are transported earth's mass exerted at a distance of into a world of atoms, molecules, and about 4,000 miles, and this can be easily light-wayes, where the standard of measured by observing the space fallen measurement is no longer in feet or through, and the velocity acquired, inches, oreven in one-hundred-thousandth by a falling body in a given time, such part of an inch, but in inillionths of millimetres, i.e., in 95000000oopth of an Does the same force act at the distance inch. The dinensions are such that, as of the moon, or 238,850 miles? This was we shall see when we come to deal with the question Newton asked himself, and matter, if the drop of water in which the the answer was got at in the following microscope shows us living animalcula way. If we swing a stone in a sling round were magnificd to the size of the earth, our head, it describes a circle as long as the atoms of which it is composed would we keep the string tight, and its pull inappear of a size intermediate between wards just balances the pull of the stone that of a rifle-bullet and a cricket-ball. to tly outwards, i.e., to use scientific This, then, is Nature's scale of space, language, as long as the centripetal just from millionths of a millimetre up to balances the centrifugal force. But if millions of millions of miles. Through we let go the string the stone darts off' in out the whole of this enormous range of the direction in which, and with the velospace the laws of Nature prevail. city with which, it was moving when the Matter attracts matter by the sime law centripetal force cerised to act. of gravity in the case of double stars re The moon is such a sling-stone revolving about each other at a distance at volving about the carth. At each instant which a base of 186,000,000 miles has it is moving in the direction of a tangent long since become a vanishing point, and to its orbit, and would move on in a in the case of atoms which form the sub straight line along this tangent if it were stance of a gas,' as in that of an apple not deflected from it by some other force. falling from a tree at the earth's surface. That is, if the moon were now at M1, it Comets, darting off into the remote would, after a given interval of timo, be regions of space, return after long at M, if no force had acted on it. But as I".

·MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT 3 in point of fact it is not at M, but at Mz. as Lexell's comet was amongst those of Therefore it has been pulled down from Jupiter. M, to M3, or, if you like, fallen through Their dimensions may be judged of Ar the space M, M, in the when it is stated that the comet of 1811 M, time in which it would had a tail 120 millions of miles in length have travelled over M, and 15 millions of miles in diameter at M, with its velocity at the widest part, while the diameter of the Mſ. How does this space nucleus was about 127,000 miles, or more correspond with the than 15 times that of the earth. In order space through which a that bodies of this magnitude, passing heavy body would have near the earth, should not affect its fallen in the same time motion or change the length of the year at the earth's surface ? by even a single seco econd, their actual It corresponds exactly, substance must be inconceivably rare. assuming the law of If the tail, for instance, of the comet of gravity to be that it 1813 had consisted of the lightest subdecreases with the stance known to us, hydrogen gas, its square of the distance. mass would have exceeded that of the This may be taken as the first appro sun, and every planet would have been ximation, but the more accurate and dragged from its orbit. As Proctor says: universal proofs of the law are derived "Ajar-full of air would probably have from mathematical calculations of what outweighed hundreds of cubic miles of the nature of the attractions must be, in that vast appendage which blazed across the case of the sun, earth, moon, and the skies to the terror of the ignorant planets, to make them describe such and superstitious." elliptic orbits and observe such laws, as The extreme tenuity of a comet's mass from Kepler's observations we know is also proved by the phenomenon of the actually to be the case. The answer here tail, which, as the comet approaches the again is the law of gravity, and no other sun, is thrown out sometimes to a length possible law, and this is confirmed in of 90 millions of miles in a few hours. practice by the fact that we are able, by And what is remarkable, this tail is calculations bilsed on it, to satisfy the thrown out against the force of gravity requisite of safe prophecy-that of know by some repulsive force, probably elecing beforehand, and to predict eclipses, trical, so that it always points away from comets, transits, and occultations, and the sun. Thus a comet which approaches generally to compile Nautical Almanacs, the sun with a tail behind it, will, after by which ships know their whereabouts passing its perihelion, recede from the in pathless oceans. sun with its tail before it, and this This, then, affords us a first firm stand although the tail may be of the length of ing-point in any speculations as to the 200 millions of iniles, as in the comet of nature of the universe. One great law, 1843. In the course of a few hours, at any rate, is universal throughout all therefore, this enormous tail has been space, and, as we shall see later, suns, absorbed and a new one started out in an stars, and nebulæ are composed of the opposite direction. And yet, thin as the same matter as the earth and its in matter of comets must be, it obeys the habitants. common law of gravity, and whether the In like manner comets and meteors, comet revolves in an orbit within that of though presenting in other respects the outer planets, or shoots off into the phenoinena not yet fully understood, are abysses of space and returns only after proved to obey the sulmo laws and to hundreds of years, its path is, at each consist of the same matter. Comets instant, regulated by the same force as are bodies whic revolve round the sun, that which causes an apple to fall to the and are attracted by it and by the ground; and its matter, however attenplanets, in obedience to the ordinary law uated, is ordinary matter, and does not of gravity, though their density is so consist of any unknown elements. The slight, that although often of enormous spectroscope shows that comets shine volume, they produce no perceptible partly by reflected sunlight and partly effect on the planets, even when en by light of their own, the latter part tangled amidst the satellites of a planet, boing gaseous, and this gas, in most ·SPACE Has this law of gravity been uniform through all time as it undoubtedly is through all space ? We have every reason to believe so. The law of gravity, which is the foundation of most of what we call the natural laws of geological action, has certainly prevailed, as will be shown later, through the enormous periods f geological time, and far beyond this we can discern it operating in those astronomical changes by which cosinic matter has been condensed into nebulæ, nebulæ into suns throwing off planets, and plancts throwing ott satellites, as they cooled and contracted. Double stars at a distance exceeding 20 millions of millions of miles revolve round their common centre of gravity by this law. Atoms and molecules almost infinitely smaller than inillionths of millinietres derive from it their specific weights with as much certainty as if they were pounds or hundredweights. We cannot speak with quite the same certainty of infinite time as of infinite space, for we have no telescopes to gauge the abysses of time, and no certain standards, like those of the known dimensions of our solar system, to apply to periods too vast for the imagination. can say this with certainty, that the present law of gravity must, have prevailed when the outermost planet of our system, Neptune, was condensed into a separate body and begin revolving in its present orbit, and that it has continued to act ever since; while, as a matter of probability, it is as nearly certain as anything can be, that the law by which the apple falls to the ground is an original condition of matter. What space and matter really may be, we do not know, and if we attempt to reason about the limits of the one and the origin of the other, if origin it bad, we get into the misty realms of metaphysics, where, like Milton's fallen angels, we Find no end in wandering mazes lost. WO comets, contains carbon and hydrogen, possibly also oxygen, in the form of hydrocarbons or marsh gas, cyanogen and possibly oxygen compounds of carbon. One comet has recently given the line of sodium, and the presence of iron is strongly suspected. As regards meteors, which include shooting stars and aërolites, it has been long known, from actual masses which have fallen on the eartlı, that they are coin posed of terrestrial matter, principally of iron, which has been partially fused by the heat engendered by thie friction of the rapid passage through the air. The recurrence of brilliant displays at regular intervals, as for instance tliose of August and November, when the whole sky often seems alive with shooting stars, had also been noticed ; but it was reserved for recent times to prove that these-meteor streams are really composedof small planetary bodies revolving round the sun in fixed orbits by the force of gravity, and that their display, as seen by us, arises from the earth in its revolution round the sun happening to intersect some of these meteoric orbits, and the friction of our atmosphere setting fire to and consuming the smaller meteors which appear as shooting stars. This shows the enormous number of meteors by which spilce must be tenanted. It is proved that the earth encounters more than a hundred meteor systems, but the chance of any one ring or system being intersected by the earth is extremely small, as the earth is such a minute speck in the whole sun-surrounding spice of the solar system. On a scale on which the earth's orbit was represented by a circle of 10 feet diameter, the earth itself would be only about itoth of an inch in diameter, so that if, as astronomers sity, the eurth encounters about a hundred meteor systems in the course of its annual revolution, space must swarm with an imumerable number of these minute bodies all revolving round the sun by the force of gravity Carl But we ·MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT TIME boulders and coarse gravel, sometimes shingle, sand, or fine mud, and carrying CHAPTER II this material sometimes to a greater and.- sometimes to a less distance, according to the velocity of the stream. Evidence of Geology-Stratification-Denu- Ages hence, when the lake has been dation-Strata identified by Superposition converted into dry land, it will be as -By l'ossils-Geological Record shown by certain, whenever a pit is dug or a well Upturned Strata--General Result-Palæo sunk in it, that it was the work of a zoic and Primary Periods-Secondary river flowing into a lake, as it is to-day, Tertiary--Time required-Coal Formation when we can see them at work. -Chalk-Elevations and Depressions of And what is true of the Rhone and the Land--Internal Heat of Earth-Earth Lake of Geneva, is true on a larger scale quakes and Volcanoes-Changes of Fauna of the Ganges, tho Mississippi, and of and Flora-Astronomical Tine-Tides and every sea or ocean, with every river or the Moon-Sun's Radiation--Earth's Cooltorrent pouring into it. ing-Geology and Astronomy-Bearings on Modern Thought. Again, the sca is perpetually wearing away the coasts of all lands, and, where GEOLOGY has done for time what as the cliffs are soft and the tides and tronomy has for space-it bas expanded currents strong, at a very rapid rate. the limited ideas derived from natural The materials swallowed-up are rolled as impression and early tradition into those shingle, ground into sand, or floated as of an almost infinite duration. This fine mud, and all finally assorted and result is so important that it is desirable laid down at the bottom of the sca, not that all educated persons, without being in a confused leap, but in regular sucprofessed geologists, should have some cession. On some of them generations clear idea of the nature of the con of shell-fish and other marine crcatures clusions and of the evidences on which live and die, and their remains are they rest. covered over by fresh sands or clays, and This I will endeavour to give. preserved for future geologists. Åll this When we come to examine the struc is going on now, and when we examine ture of the carth-or rather of the outer the rock; we find that precisely the same crust of the earth which we inhabit sort of thing has been going on iom tho with the care and precision of scientific newest to the oldest strata. With the methods, we find that it is not of uniform exception of a comparatively small composition, but consists mainly of dis amount of igneous rock, which has tinct layers, or stratil, lying one over the boiled-up from deep sources of molten other. This is true not only of the matter, and been poured-out in sheets of larger besls, or distinct forinations, but liva, or masses of trap, porphyry, and of the details of each formation, many granite, according to the aniount of of which are built up as regularly as the pressure it has undergone and the time layers of the Great lyramid, while others it has taken to cool and crystallise, all the made up of layers no thicker than earth's surf:uce may be said to consist of the leaves of a book. stratified matter, showing clear signs of Now consider what this fact of strati- having been deposited from water. Some fication implies. In the first plilce it of the oldest rocks, such as gneiss, mily implies deposit from water, for there is be a little doubtful, its they havo clearly no other agency by which materials can been subjected to great laat under great be sorted out and thrown down in hori pressure, until they bec:une plastic zontal layers, while this agency is now enough to crystallise is they cooled, and doing the same thing every day and all thus destroy any fossils embedded in them over the world. The Rhone flots into and obliterate most of the ordinary signs the Lake of Geneva a turbid stream, and of stratitication. But the opinion of the flows out of it as clear as crystal. All best geologists is that they were originthe matter it brings in is deposited at ally stratified, and have become what is the bottom of the lake, and in course of called "metamorphic," or changed by time will till it up. This deposit varies heat and pressure into the semblance of with every alternation of food and igneous rocks. But even if these are not drought; the river depositing sometimes included, enough remnins to justify the are ·TIME general assertion that the outer crust of from the old Laurentian up to the newest 'the earth, as known to us, is made up Tertiary, had been deposited uniformly mainly of stratified materials which have all over the world, and had remained been deposited from water. undisturbed, and we could have seen Now this implies another most im them in one vertical section in a cliff portant fact, viz., that there must have twenty-five miles high--for that is about been waste or denudation of existing their total known thickness--we should land corresponding to tho deposit of halve been able without further difficulty stratified materials under water. Water to determine their orcler of succession cannot generate these materials, and and respective magnitudes. every square mile of such strata, say 10 But this is plainly impossible, for tho feet thick, implies the removal of 10 feet deposits going on at any one time are of from a square mile of land surface by very different character. For instance, rins iind rivers, or of an equivalent we have at present the Globigerina ooze amount of cubical content in some other gradually filling the depths of the way, as by the erosion of a coast line. Atlantic with a deposit resembling chalk; This is a very important consideration the Gulfs of Bengal and Mexico silting when we come to estimate the time re up with fine clay from river deposits ; quired for the formation of such a thick vast tracts in the Pacific, Indian Oce:un, liess of stratified beds as we find existing: and Red Sca, covered with coral and tho There must have been a fundamental débris of coral-reefs. How could these, if crystalline rock as the earth cooled-down upheaved into dry land and explored by from a llui:l state and acquired a solid future geologists, be identified as having crust, and this rock must have been worn been formed contemporaneously? down by primeval scas and rivers as the Suppose that coins of Victoria had progressive cooling admitted of the con been dropped in each of them, the gco densation of aqueous vapour into water. logist who discovered these coins would The waste of this primitive crust must have no difficulty in concluding that tho have been deposited in strata at the strata in which they were found were bottom of those seas in thick masses, all formed in the nineteenth century. covering the original rock, and these The petrified shells and other remains agnin must have been partly crystallised found in geological strata are such coins. by heatand pressure, and over and over Every great formation has had its own again upheaved and submerged, and characteristic fauna and flora, or aggrethenselves worn down by fresh erosion, gate of animal and vegetable lifo, varyforming fresh deposits which underwent ing slowly from one geological age to a repetition of the same process. another, and linked to the past and A third important inference from the future by some persistent types and fact of stratification is that all strata forms, but still with such a prepondermust have been originally deposited ance of characteristic fossils as to enablo horizontally, or very nearly so, and in us to assign the rocks in which they such order that the lowest is the oldest. occur to their proper place in the volume Suppose we fill a jar with water, and of the geological record. Innumerable put somo white sand into it, and when observations have shown that we can that has subsided to the bottom and the roly, with absolute confidenco, on tite water is clear, some yellow sand, and fossils enabodded in the different strata again some recl sand, it is clear that we of the earth's crust as tests of the period shall have at the bottom of the jar three to which they belong, however different horizontal deposits or strata, one white, the strata may be in mineral composione yellow, and one red, and that by no tion. conceivable means can the order in which The next question is how we can ascerthey were deposited have been other tain tid thickness and order of succesthan first white, secondly yellow, and sion of these strata. We have seen that lastly red. This law, therefore, is invari all stratified rocks are due to the action able, that wherever it is possible to trace of water, and therefore were originally a series of strata lying one above the deposited horizontally. Had they reother, the lowest is the oldest, and the mained so, in the first place, the process highest the youngest in point of time. of forming stratified rocks inust long ago If, therefore, all the great formations, have come to an end, for all the laud ·10 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT or see as surface must have been worn down to be taken as a separate chapter, each the sea level, and, with no more land to chapter will be found to be made-up of, be denuded, deposition must have cessed a number of pages, each with its own at an early period of the earth's history. letterpress and illustrations, thVugh con: In the second place, we could have known nected with the pages before and after nothing more of the earth's crust than it by the thread of the continuous comwe saw on the surface, and in the shallow mon subject of their proper chapter; as pits and borings which we could sink the chapters again are connected by the below it. But earthquakes and volcanoes, continuous common subject-matter of the and the various fractures and pressures complete volume. It must not be supdue to şubterranean heat and secular posed that the volume is anything like contraction and cooling, have been at perfect. We have to piece it together work counteracting the effects of denu from the fragments found in the limited dation, and causing elevations and de number of countries which have thus far pressions by which the inequalities of been scientifically explored, and which the earth's surface have been renewed, do not constitute inore than a small part the balance between sea and land main of the earth's surface. We know nothing tained, and strata, originally horizontal of what is below the oceans which cover at the bottom of the ocean, upheaved more than three-fourths of that surface, until sea-shells are found at the top of and there are great gaps in the record high mountains, so that we can walk for during the times wlien portions of the miles over their upturned edges. surface were dry land, and when, con- Any one who wishes to understand sequently, no deposit of strata how geologists have been able to measure preservation of fossils was possible. Still such a thickness of the earth's crust has a great deal has been accomplished, and only to take a book open at page 1 and the general result, as given by common lay it flat before him. He can consent of the best geologists, is nothing but that one page; but if he follows: turns up the pages on the right-hand side The total thickness of known strata is of the book until their edges become about 130,000 feet or twenty-five miles, horizontal, he can pass over thern and or the doth part of the distance froin the count perhaps 500 pages in the space of earth's surface to its centre. Of this, a couple of inches. about 30,000 feet belong to the Lauren- This is precisely what geologists have tian, which is the oldest known stratified been able to do at various points of the deposit; 18,000 to the Cambrian, and earth's surface where the upturned edges 22,000 to the Silurian. These earliest of the pages of its history are exposed, formations, which are grouped as the and they come out, one behind the other, Primary or Palæozoic Epoch, have been in the due succession in which they were so changed by slow crystallisation under written by Nature. For instance, in great heat and pressure that all fossils travelling froin east to west in England and nearly all traces of stratification we pass continually from newer to older have been well-nigh obliterated. formations-Chalk comes in from below In the Cambrian and Lower Silurian Tertiary ; Oolite and Lias from below traces of life become more frequent, Chalk; then Perrian or New Red especially of low forms of seaweeds, and Sandstone ; Carboniferous, including the in the Upper Silurian we find an abun- Coal Measures; Devonian or Old Red dance of fossils, consisting of crustacea, Sandstone ; Silurian, Cambrian, and in shell-fish, and a few true fish in the the extremo north-west of Scotland and upper strata. Somo of the shells, as the the Hebrides, oldest of all, the Lauren Lingula, have continued without much tian. change up to the present time; and on There are some omissions and inter the whole we find ourselves in the Silupolations, but, in a general way, it may rian period, if not earlier, in presence of be said that within the bounds of the & state of things in which substantially British Empire we have such a view of present causes operated and present con- Nature's volume as would be got, in the ditions were in force. Rains fell, winds case I have supposed, by travelling over blew, rivers ran, wavěs eroded cliffs, its upturned edges from page 1 to page shell-fish lived and died, and crabs and 500. And if each of the great formations sand-worms crawled about on shores left ·TIME 11 dry by each tide, very much as is the case at present. The next great division, to which the name of Primary was given before the existence of fossils was known in the older or Palæozoic division, comprises the Devonian or Old Red Sandstone; the Carboniferous, which includes the coal; and the Permian or New Red Sandstone. The average thickness of these three systems, taken together, is about 42,000 feet. • It may be called the era of Fern Forests and of Fish, the former being the principal source of our supplies of coal, and the latter being extremely abundant within the Devonian and Permian formations. The third great division is formed by the Secondary group, which includes the Triassic, the Jura, and the Cretaceous or Chalk systems, and has an average thickness of about 15,000 fcet. This epoch is emphatically the age of Reptiles as the preceding one was that of Fish, and the prevailing vegetation is no longer one of ferns and mosses, but of Gymnosperins, or plants having naked seeds, the most important class of which is that of the Coniferæ or Pine tribe. During this period the Plesiosauri, Ichthyosauri, and other gigantic sea-dragons abounded in the oceans; colossal land-dragons, such as the Dinosauri, occupied the continents, and Iterodactyls, a remarkable form of carnivorous flying lizards, ruled the air. Swarms of other reptiles, nearly related to the present lizards, crocodiles, and turtles, abounded both in the sea and land. A few traces of mammals and birds show that these orders had then come into existence, just as a few traces of reptiles are found in the Primary, and of tish in the Paleozoic, strativ, but the few mammalian remains found are of small animals of the marsupial or lowest type, and the birds are of a transition type between reptiles and true birds. Tliis epoch conclydes with the Chalk formation, which is one of relatively deep-sea deposit, where no trace of terrestrial life can be expected. Abovo this comes the Tertiary epoch, when the present order, both of vegetable and animal life, is fairly inaugurated ; mammals predominate over other forms of vertebrate animals ;. existing orders and Species begin to appear and increase rapidly; and vegetation consists wainly of Angiosperms, or plants with covered seeds, as in our present forests. The total thickness of these strita, from the lowest, or Eocene, to the end of the uppermost, or Pliocene, is about 3,000 feet. Above this comes the Quaternary, or recent period, which comprises the superficial strata of modern formation, and is characterised by the undoubted existence of man, and of animals which either now exist, or which have become extinct in quite recent geological times. The details of this and of the Tertiary Epoch wili be more fully considered when we come to treat of the antiquity of man, with which they are closely connected. But for the present object, which is that of ascertaining some standard of time for the immense series of ages proved by geology to have elapsed since the earth assumed its present condition, became sub. ject to existing laws and fitted to be the ubode of life, it will be sufficient to refer to the older strata. The best idea of the enormous intervals of time required for geological changes will be derived from the coal measures. These consist of part only of one geological formation known as the Carboniferous. They are made up of sheets, or seams, of condensed vegetable matter, varying in thickness from less than an inch to as much as thirty feet, and lying one above another, separated by beds of rock of various composition. As a rule, every seam of coal rests upon it bed of clay, known as the “under-clay," and is covered by a bed of sandstone or shale. These alternations of clay, coal, and rock, are often repeated a great many times, and in some sections in South Wales and Nova Scotia there are as many as eighty or a hundred seans of coal, each with its own under-clay below and sandstone or shale above. Some of the coal seams are as much as thirty feet thick, and the total thickness of the coal measures is, in some cases, as much as 14,000 feet. Now consider what these facts mean. Every under-clay was clearly once a surface soil on which the forest vegetation grew, whose accumulated débris forms tho overlying scam of coal. The under-clays are full of the fibres of roots, and the stools of trees which once grew on them are constantly found in situ, with their roots attached just as they stood when the tree fell, and added to the accumulation of vegetable matter, which in modern times forms peat, and in more ancient ·12 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT were days, undor different conditions of heat growths, exactly like those now growing and pressure, took the more consolidated on the surface, which are piled one above form of coal. the other, and separated by depesits of When these vegetable remains are ex river silt, showing a long alternation of amined with the aid of the microscope it periods of rost when forests grew, folis found that these ancient forests con lowed by periods of subsidence when they sisted mainly of trees like gigantic club were flooded and their remains mosses, mares-tails, and treo ferns, with embedded in silt. a few resembling yews and firs. But in Starting on the foregoing assumption many cases the bulk of the coal is com that one foot of coal represents fifty posed of the spores and seeds of these generations of coal plants, and that each ferns and club-mosses, which were ripened generation of coal plants took ten years and shed every yeiir, and gradually ac to come to maturity, an assumption cumulated into a vegetable mould, just which is certainly very moderate; and as fallen leaves, beech-inast, and other taking the actually measured thickness débris, gradually form a soil in our exist of the coal mcasures in some localities at ing forests. 12,000 feet, Professor Huxley calculates The time required must have been that the time represented by the Coul very great to accumulate vegetable mat formation alone would be six millions ter, principally composed of tine spore of years. Such a figure is, of course dust, to a depth sufficient under great only a rough approximation, but it is compression to give even a foot of solid suflicient to show that when we come to coal. Sir J. W. Dawson, who has devoted deal with geological tiine, the standard great attention to the coal-fields of by which we must mcasure is one of America, says: “We may safely assert which the unit is a million of years. that every foot of thickness of pure This standard is confirmed by a variety bituminous coal implies the quiet growth of other considerations. Take the case of and full of at least fifty generations of the Chalk formation. Sigillaria, and therefore in undisturbed Chalk is almost entirely composed of condition of forest growth, enduring the microscopic shells of minute organthrough many centuries." But this is isms, such as now float in the upper straté only the first step in the measure of the of our great oceans, and by their subtime required for the formation of the sidence, in the form of an impripable coal mesures. Each seam of coal is, as shell-dust, accunulate what is called the we have seen, covered by a bed of sand "Globigerina ooze," which is brought up or shale, i.c., of water-borne materials. by soundings in the Atlantic and Pacific How can this be accounted for Evi from great depths. In fact, we may say dently in one way only--that the land that a chalk forination is now going on in surface in which the forest grew sub the depths of existing oceans, and consided gradually until it became first a versely that the old chalk, which now marsh, and then a lagoon or shallow forms hills and elevated downs, was estuary, which silted up hy degrees with certainly deposited at the bottom of deposits of sand or mud, and, finally, wils Cretirceous Sa'ils. The rate of deposit upraised until its surface became dry must have been extremely slow, certainly land, in which a second forest grew, much slower than that of the deposit of whose dibris formed a second coal seam. the much grosser matter brought down And so on, over and over again, until by the Nile in its annual inundations, the the whole series of coal measures had growth of which has been estimated from been accumulated, when this alternation actual measurement at about three inches of slight submergences and slight rises per century. If one inch per century came to an end, and some more decided were the rate of accumulation of this movement of the earth's surface in the microscopic shell-dust, subsiding slowly locality brought on a different state of to depths of two or three miles over things. This is in fact exactly what we are:ls as large as Europe, it would take see taking place on a smaller scale in 1,200 years to form a foot of chalk, and recent times in such deposits as those of 1,200,000 years to form 1,000 feet. Now the delta of the Mississippi, where a well there are places where the thickness of sunk at New Orleans passes through a the Cretaceous formation, exposed by succession of cypress swamps and forest the edges of its upturned strata, exceeds ·TIME 13 5,000 feet, so that this gives an approxima period, is found in mountain masses, and tion very similar to that furnished by the has been elevated to a height of 10,000 coal measures. feet and more in the Alps and Hima- We have thus, on a rough approxima- layas. tion, a minimum period of about 6,000,000 On a smaller scale, and in more recent years for the accumulation of a single roem- times, raised beaches with existing shells ber of one of the separate formations into and lines of cliff's and caves, are found which the total 130,000 feet of measured at various heights above the existing strata are subdivided. But this takes no sea-level of many of the coasts of Britain, account of the long periods during which Scandinavia, Italy, South America, and no accumulation took place at the other countries. localities in question, and of the long Now the first question is, were these pauses which must have ensued between changes caused by the land rising or hy each Inovement of elevation and sub the sea falling? The answer is, by the mergence, and especially between the dis land rising. Had they been caused by appearance of an old, and the appearance the sea standing at a higher level it must of an almost entirely new, epoch, with have stood everywhere at this level, at different forms of animal and vegetable any rate in the same hemisphere and life. We may be certain also that we anywhere near the same latitude. But are far from knowing the total thick there are large tracts of land which have ness of strata which will be disclosed never been submerged since remote geowhen the whole surface of the earth logical periods; and in recent times there comes to be explored. All we can say is conclusive evidence that the changes is that we have fragmentary pages of level of sea and land have been partial left in the geological record, speaking and not general. Thus in the well-known broadly, for 100 millions of years, and instance of the columns of the ruined that probably the lost pages are quite as temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli in the Bay numerous as those of which we have an of Naples, which forms the illustration imperfect knowledge. on the title-page of Lyell's “Principles of Sir Charles Lyell, the highest authority Geology," there can be no doubt that on the subject, is inclined to estimate since the temple was built, either the the minimum of geological time at 200 seit must have risen and since fallen, or niillicies of years, and few geologists will the land sunk and since risen, at least say that his estimate appears excessive. twenty feet since the temple was built Another test of the vast duration of less than 2,000 years ago, for up to this geological time is afforded by the oscil height the marble columns are riddled by lations of the earth's surfice. At first borings of marine shells, whose valves sight we are apt to consider the earth are still to be seen in the holes they as the stable and the seir as the un excavated. But an elevation of the level stable element. But in reality it is of the Mediterranean of twenty feet exactly the reverse. Land has been. would have submerged a great part of perpetually rising and falling while the Egypt, and other low-lying lands on the level of the sea has remained the same. borders of that scal, where we know This is easily proved by the presence that no such irruptions of salt water of sea-shells and other marine remains have taken place within historical, or in strata which now form high moun even within recent geological, times. tains. In the case of chalk, for instance, The conclusion is therefore certain, that there must have been in England a the land at this particular spot must have change of relative level of sea and land sunk twenty feet, and again risen is of more than two miles of vertical much, so as to bring back the floor of the height, between the original formation temple to its present position, which stood of the chalk at the bottom of a deep ocean one Ifundred years ago just above the and its present position in the North sez-level, and that so gradually as not and South Downs. In other caşes the to throw down the three columns which change of level is even more conspicuous. are still standing. A slow subsidence The Nummulitelimestone, which is formed has since set in and is now going on, so like chalk from an accumulation of the that the floor is now two or three feet minute shells of low organisms floating below the sea level. in the oceans of the early Tertiary Similar proofs may be multiplied to ·14 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT any extent. Along the coasts of the find that the temperature actually does British Islands we find, in some places increase at a rate which varies somewhat submarine forests showing subsidence, in in different localities, but which averages others raised beaches showing elevation, about 1° Fahrenheit for every 60 feet of but they are not continuous at the same depth. At this rate of increase water level. Along the east coast of Scotland would boil at a depth of 10,000 feet, and there is a remarkable raised beach at iron and all other metals be melted before a level of about twenty-four feet above we reached 100,000 feet. What actually the present one, showing in many places occurs at great depths we do not know lines of cliff, sea-worn caves, and outlying with any certainty, for we are not suffistacks and skerries, exactly like those of ciently acquainted with the laws under the present coast, though with green which matter may behave when under fields or sandy links at their base, instead enormous heat combined with enormous of the waves of the German Ocean. But pressure. But we do know from volcaas we go north this inland cliff gets lower noes and arthquakes that masses of and gradually dies out, and when we get molten rocks and of imprisoned gases into the extreme north, among the Orkney exist in certain localities, at depths below and Shetland Islands, there are no signs the surface which, although large comof raised beaches, and everything points pared with our deepest pits, are almost towards the recent period having been infinitesimally small compared with the one of subsidence. total depth of 4,000 miles from that sur- Again, in Sweden, where marks were face to the eartli's centre. cut in rocks in sheltered situations on the This much is clear, that, in order to well-nigh tideless Baltic more than a account for observed facts, we must concentury ago, so as to test the question of sider the extreme outer crust, or surface an alleged elevation of the land, it has of the exirth as known to us, as resting on been clearly shown that in the extreme soinething which is liable to expand and north of Sweden, the marks have risen contract slowly with variations of heat, nearly seven feet, while in the central and occasionally, when the tension beportion of the country they have neither comes great, to give violent shocks to the risen nor fallen, and in the southern outer crust, sending earthquake waves province of Scania they have fallen. through it, and to send up girses and This would be clearly impossible if the molten liva through volcanoes, along sear and not the land had been the un lines of fissure, and at points of least stable cleinent, and apparent elevations resistance. It is clear, also that these and depressions had been due to a gene movements are not uniform, but that ral fall or rise in the level of all the seas one part of the earth's surface may be of the northern hemisphere. rising while another is sinking, and In fact, the more we study gcology the portions of it may be slowly tilting over, more we are impressed with the fact that so that is one end sinks the other rises. the normal state of the earth is, and has The best comparison that can be made always been, one of incessant changes. is to a sheet of ice which has been much Water, raised by evaporation from the skated over and cracked in numerous seas, falls as rain or snow on land, wastes directions, so as to have become i sort it away and carries it down froin higher of mosaic of ice fragments, which, when to lower levels, to be ultimately deposited a thaw sets in and the ice gets sloppy, at the bottom of the sea. This goes on rise and fall with slightly different moconstantly, and if there were no compentions as a skater, gliding over them, sating action, as the seas cover a much varies the pressure, and occasionally larger area than the lands, all land would give a crack and let water rise through ultimately disappear, and one universal from below in the line of fissure. The ocean cover the globe. But inward heat difliculty will not seem so great if we supplies the compensating action, and consider that the rocks which form the new lands rise and new mountain' chains earth's crust'are for the most part elastic, are upheaved to supply the place of those and that an amount of elevation which which disappear. seenis large in itself does not necessarily This inward heat of the earth is an imply a very steep gradient. Thus, if ascertained fact; for as we descend from the elevation which towards the close of the surface in deep mines or borings, wo the Glacial period carried a bed of exist- ·TIME 15 as of ye:urs. ing sea-shells of Arctic type to the top of the Carse of Stirling. There is even the hill, Moel Tryfen, in North Wales, some evidence that the latest rise may which is 1,200 feet high, were, say, one have occurred since the Roman wall was of 1,500 feet, this would be given by a built from the Forth to the Clyde. In gradient of 15 feet a mile, or 1 in 333 any case, however, the movements have for 100 miles. Such a gradient would not been extremely slow, and there have be perceptible to the cye, and would cer been frequent oscillations, and long tainly not be sufficient to cause any ten pauses when the level of land and sea sion likely to rupture rocks or disturb remained stationary. The evidence, strata. therefore, from the great charges which Such movements are a rule ex have occurred during each geological tremely slow. In volcanic regions there period, points to the same conclusion as are occasionally shocks which raiso ex that drawn from the thickness of formatensive regions a few feet at a blow, and tions, such as the coal measures and partial elevations and subsidences which chilk, which niust have been accumulated throw up cones of lava and cinders, or very slowly, viz., that geological time let mountains down into chasms, in a must be measured by a scale of millions single explosion. The most noted of these are the instances of Monte Nuovo, Another test of the vast duration of near Naples, 800 feet high, and Jorullo, high, and Jorullo, geological time is afforded by in Mexico, thrown up in one eruption, which have taken place in animal life as and the disappearance of a mountain we pass from one formation to another, 2,000 feet high in the Straits of Sunda and even within the limits of the same during an earthquake. The largest rise formation. The fauna, or form of existrecorded of an extensive area froin the ing life at a given period, changes with shock of an earthquake, is that which extreme slowness. During the historical occurred in South America in 1835, when period there has been no perceptible a range of coast of 500 miles from change, and even since the Pliocene Copiapo to Chiloe was permanently raised period, which cannot be placed at a less five or six feet by a single shock, as wils distance froin us than 200,000 years, and shown by the beds of dead mussels and probably at much more, the change has other.cells which had been hoisted up in been very small. In the limited class of some places as much as ten feet. It is pro large land animals it has been conbable that the great chain of the Andes, siderable ; but if we take the far more whose highest summits reach 27,000 numerous forms of shell-tish and other fect, has been raised in is great measure marine life, the olil species which have by a succession of similar shocks. become extinct and the new ones which But for the inost part these move have appeared, do not exceed five per ments, whether of elevation or depression, cent. of the whole. This is the more rego on so slowly and quietly that they markable as great vicissitudes of climate escape observation. Scandinavia is ap and variations of sea-level have occurred parently now rising and Greenland during the interval. The whole of the sinking, but most countries have re Glacial period has come and gone, and mained appreciably steady, or nearly Britain has been by turns an archipelago so, during the historical period. St. of frozen islands, and part of a continent Michael's Mount, in Cornwall, is still extending over what is now the German connected with the mainland by a spit, Ocean, and pushing out into the Atlantic dry at ebb tide and covered at tood, as up to the one hundred fathom line. it was more than 2,000 years ago when Reasoning from these facts, assuming the old Britons carted their tin across to the rate of change in the forms of life to Phænician traders. Egypt, during a have been the same formerly, and sumperiod of 7,000 years, has preserved the ming up the many complete changes of samo level, or at the most has sunk as fauna which have occurred during the slowly as the Nile mud has accuniulated. separate geological formations, Lyell has Parts of the, English and Scoa:b coast arrived at the conclusion that geology have risen perhaps twenty feet since the requires a period of not less than 200 prehistoric period, when canoes millions of years to account for the • wrecked under what are now the streets phenomena which it discloses. af Glasgow, and whales were stranded in Long as the record is of geological were ·16 MODERN SOIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT time, it is only that of one short chapter three hours. In this state of things the in the volume of the history of the moon is supposed to have been thrown universe. Geology only begins when the off from the earth, either by one great earth had cooled down into a state re convulsion, or, more probably, by small sembling the present; when winds blew, masses at a time forming a ring like that rains fell, rivers and seas eroded rocks of Saturn, which ended by coalescing and formed deposits, and when the con into a single satellite. With tho moon, ditions were such that life became which is the principal cause of the tides, possible by the remains of which those so much nearer tho earth, their rise and deposits can be identified. fall must have been something enormous, But before this period began, which and huge tidal waves like tie bore of the may be called that of the maturity or Bay of Fundy, but perhaps 500 or 1,000 middle age of our planet, a much vaster feet high, must have swept twice during time must be allowed for the contraction each revolution of the earth on its axis, and cooling of the vaporous matter of i.e., twice every three or four hours, along which it is formed, into the state in all the narrower seas and channels and which the phenomena of geology became over all except the mountainous lands possible. And if vast in the case of the adjoining. earth, how much väster must be the life Now these conclusions may be true or periods of the larger planets, such as not as regards phases of the earth's life Jupiter, which from their much greater prior to the Silurian period, from which size cool and contract niuch more slowly, downwards geology shows unmistakably and are not yet advanced beyond the that nothing of the sort, or in the least stage of intense youthful heat and degree approaching to it, has occurred. glowing luminosity which was left behind But what I wish to point out is that all by our earth a great many tens of this superstructure of theory rests on a millions of years ago! And how vastly basis which really does admit of definite vaster must be that of the sun, whose demonstration and calculation. mass and volume exceed those of Jupiter Halley found that when eclipses of the in a far higher ratio thain Jupiter sur sun, recorded in ancient annals, are passes the earth! compared with recent observations, a And beyond all this in a third degree discrepancy is discovered in the cate of of vastness coine the life-periods of those the moon's motion, which must have been stars or distant suns, which we know to slightly slower then than it is now. be in some as much as three Laplace apparently solved the difficulty hundred times larger than our sun, and by showing that this was an inevitable not nearly so far advanced as it in the result of the law of gravity, when the process of emergence from the fiery varying eccentricity of the earth's orbit nebulous into the solar stage. was properly taken into account; and To give some ident of the vast intervals the calculated annount of the variation of time required for these changes, a few from this causa was shown to be exactly facts and figures may be given. what wils required to reconcile the obser- One of the latest speculations of vations. But our great English mathematlieinatical science is that the rotation matician, Adams, having recently gone of the earth is becoming slower, or, in over Lirplace's calculations anew, disother words, that the day is becoming covered that some factors in the problem longer, owing to theretarding action of the had been omitted, which reduced Laplace's tides, which act as a brake on a revolving acceleration of the moon's motion by wheel. If so, the effect of the reaction about one-half, leaving the other half to. on the moon of this action of the invon be explained by a real increase in the the earth, must be that as the length of the sidereal day, or time of one earth rotates more slowly, the moon complete revolution of the earth about recedes to a greater distance. And its axis. The retardation required is one vice versa, when the earth rotated more sufficient to account for the total accurapidly the moon nearer to it, mulated loss of an hour and a quarter in until at length, when the process is 2,000 years; or, in other words, the length carried back far enough, we arrive at a of the day is now more by about gith part timno when the moon was at the earth's of a second than it was 2,000 years ago. surface and the length of the day about At this rate it would require 168,000 cases on was ·TIME 17 case years to make a difference of 1 second in these figures are, they are all the result of the length of the day; 10,080,000 years for natural laws, just as we find the law of a difference of 1 minute; and 604,800,000 gravity prevailing throughout space at years for a difference of 1 hour. The distances expressed by figures equally rate would not be uniform for the past, vast. The question is, what laws? The for as the moon got nearer it would cause only one we know of at present at all higher tides and more retardation; stil, adequate to account for such a generation the abyss of time seems almost incon of heat, is the transformation into heat ceivable to get back to the stato in which of the enormous amount of mechanical the earth could have rotated in three force or energy, resulting from the conhours and thrown off the moon. densation of the mass of nebulous matter It is right, however, to state that all from which the sun was formed, into a mathematical calculations of time, based mass of its present dimensions. This is on the assumed rate at which cosmic no doubt a true cause as far as it goes. matter cools into suns and planets, and It is true that as the mass contracts, heat these into solid and habitable globes, are would be, so to speak, squeezed out of it, in the highest degree uncertain. If the very much as water is squeezed out of a original data are right, mathematical wet sponge by compressing it. But it is calculation inevitably gives right conclu il question whether it is the sole and sions. But if the data are wrong, or, sufficient cause. Mathematicians have what is the same thing, partial and im calculated that even if we suppose the perfect, the conclusions will, with equal original cosmic matter to have had an certainty, be wrong also. Now in this infinite extension, its condensation into we certainly do not know "the the present sun would only have been truth, the whole truth, and nothing but sufficient to keep up the actual supply of the truth” respecting these processes. solar heat for about 15 millions of years. Take what is perhaps the most difticult Of this a largo portion must have been problem presented by science-how the exhausted before the earth was formed sun keeps up so uniformly the enormous as a separate planet, and had cooled down amount of heat which it is constantly into a habitable globe. But even if wo radiating into space. This radiation is took the whole it would be altogether ingoing on in every direction, and the solar sufficient. All competent geologists are heat received by the earth is only that agreed in requiring at least 100 millions minute portion of it which is intercepted of years to account for the changes which by our little speck of a planet. All the have taken pliice in the earth's surface planets together receivo less than one since the first dawn of life recorded in 230,000,000th part of the total heat ra the older rocks. diated away by the sun and apparently Various attempts have been made to lost in space. Knowing the amount of reconcile the discrepancy. For instance, heat from the sun's rays received at the it has been said that tho constantly re. earth's surface in a given time, we can peated impact of masses of meteoric and calculate the total amount of heat ra cometic matter falling into the sun must diated from the sun in that time. It have caused the destruction of a vast amounts to this, that the sun in each amount of mechanical energy which second of time parts with as much heat would be converted into heat. This is as would be given out by the burning of true as far as it goes, but it is impossible 16,436 inillions of millions of tons of the to conceive of the sun as a target kept at best anthracite coal. And radiation cer a perpetual and uniform white heat for tainly at this rate, if not a higher one, millions of years by a rain of meteoric has been going on ever since the combullets constantly fired upon it. More mencement of the geological record, which plausibly it is said that we know nothing must certainly be reckoned by a great of the interior constitution of the sun, many tens of millions of years. and that its solid nucleus may be vastly What an illustration does this afford of more compressed than is inferred froin that apparent waste of Nature" which the dimensions of its visible disc, which made Tennyson "falter where he firmly is composed of glowing flames and trod” when he came to consider “her vapours. This also may be a true cause, secret meaning in her deeds"! but, after making every allowance, we Yet there can be no doubt that vast as must fall back on the statement that the ·18 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT continuance for such enormous periods of such an enormous waste of energy as is given out by the sun, though certainly explainable by laws of Nature, depends on laws not yet thoroughly understood and explained. Even in the case, comparatively small and near to us, of the earth, the condition of the interior and the rate of secular cooling atferd problems which as yet wait for solution. The result of a number of careful experiments in mines and deep sinkings shows that the temperature, as we descend below the shallow superficial crust which is affected by the seasons, i.e., by the solar radiation, increases at the average rate of 1° Falirenheit for every 60 feet of depth. That is the average rate, though it varies a good deal in different localities. Now, at this rate we should soon reach a depth at which all known substances would be melted. But astronomical considerations, derived from the Precession of the Équinoxes, favour the idea that the earth is a solid and not a fluid body, and require us in any case to assume a rigid crust of not less than ninety miles in thickness. And if the whole earth below a thin superficial crust were in an ordinary state of fluidity from heat, it is dillicult to see how it could do otherwise than boil, that is, establish circulating currents throughout its mass with disengagement of vapour, in which colse the surface crust must be very soon broken up and melted down, just as the superficial crust of it red-hot stream of lava is, if an infusion of fresh lava raises the stream below to white heat, or as a thin film of ice would be if boiling water were poured in below it. All we can say is, that the laws under which matter behaves under conditions of heat pressure, chemical action, and electricity so totally different as must prevail in the interior of the earth, and a fortiori in that of the sun, are as yet very partially known to us. In the meantime the safest course is to hold by those conclusions of geology which, as far as they go, depend on laws really known For instance, the quantity of mud carried down in a year by the Ganges or Mississippi, is a quantity which can be calculated within certain approximate limits. We can tell with certainty how much the deposit of this amount of mud would raise an area, Aay of 100 square miles, and how long it would take, at this rate, to lower the area of India drained by the Ganges a sufficient number of feet to give matter enough to fill up the Gulf of Bengal. And if among the older formations we find one, like the Wealden for instance, similar in character to that now forining by the Ganges, we can approximate from its thickness to the time that may have been required to form it. In calculations of this sort there is no theory, they are based on positive facts, limited only by a certain possible amount of error cither way In short, the conclusions of geology, at any rate up to the Silurian period, when the present order of things was fairly inaugurated, are approximate furts and not theories, while the astronomical conclusions are theories based on duta so uncertain, that while in some cases they give results incredibly short, like that of 15 millions of years for the wholo past process of the formation of the solar system, in others they give results almost incredibly long, as in that which supposes the moon to have been thrown oil when the earth was rotating in three hours, while the utmost actual retardation claimed from observation would require 600 millions of years to make it rotate in twenty-three hours instead of twenty-four. To one who looks at these discussions between geologists and astronomers not from the point of view of a specialist in either science, but from that of it dispassionate spectator, the safest course, in the present state of our knowledge, seems to be to assume that gcology really proves the duration of the present order of things to have been somewhere over 100 millions of years, and that astronomy gives an enormous though unknown time beyond in the past, and to come in the future, for the birth, growth, maturity, decline, and death of the solar system of which our earth is a small planet now passing through the habitable phase. So far, however, as the immediate object of this work is concerned, viz., tho bearings of modern scientitic discovery on modern thought, it is not very material whether the shortest or longest possiblo standards of time are adopted. The conclusions as to man's position in the universe, and the historical truth or falsehood of old beliefs, are the same whether man has existed in & stato of constant though slow progression for the to us.

·MATTER 19 We get? last 50,000 years of a period of 15 millions, hypothesis by which alone can or for the last 500,000 years of a period of account for the phenomena of light and 150 millions. It is a matter of the deep heat, and, as the marvellous researches of est scientific interest to arrive at the Hertz have shown, of the electro-magnetic truth, both as to the age of the solar waves which confirm the theory of consystem, the age of the earth as a body nection between electricity, magnetism, capable of supporting life, the successive light, and radiant heat. More than this orders and dates at which life actually we cannot assure regarding ether, for all apperired, and the manner and date of ponderable matter,--solids, liquids, gases the appearance of the most highly organ -consists of ultimate molecules, and we ised form of life endowed with new capado not know whether ether is noncities for developing reason and con molecular or imponderable. science in the form of Man. Those who Dealing with Motion, it has been shown wish to prove themselves worthy of their that light radiates in all directions from great good luck in having been born in a luminous centre, travelling at the rate a civilised country of the nineteenth of 186,000 miles per second. Now what century, and not in Palaolithic periods, is light? It is a sensation produced on will do well to show that curiosity, or the brain by something which has been appetite for knowledge, which mainly concentrated by the lens of the eye on distinguishes the clever from the stupid he retina, and thence transmitted along and the civilised from the savage man, the optic nerve to the brain, where it sets by studying the works of such writers as certain molecules vibrating. What is the Lyell, Huxley, Tyndall, and Proctor, something which produces this effect? Is where they will find the questions which it a succession of minute particles, shot here are only briefly stated, developed at like rille-bullets from the luminous body fuller length with the nost accurate and impinging on the retina as on a tarscienco and in the clearest and most Or is it a succession of tiny waves attractive style. But for the moral, breaking on the retina as the waves of philosophical, and religious bearings of the sea break on a shore? Analogy sugthese discoveries the current of gests the latter, for in the case of the modern thought, there is such it wide sister sense, sound, we know as a fact margin that it becomes almost immaterial that the sensation is produced on the whether the shortest possible or longest brain by waves of air concentrated by possible periods should be ultimately the ear, and striking on the auditory established. But we have a more conclusive proof. If one of a series of particles shot out like bullets overtakes another, the force of impact of the two is increased ; but if one wave overtakes another when CHAPTER III the crest of the pursuing wave just coincides with the hollow of the wave before MATTER it the effect is neutralised, and if the two are of equal size it will be exactly Matter and Motion-- Light, Colour, and Heat neutralised and both waves will be -Matter and its Elements Molecules and etliced. In other words, two lights will Atoms--Spectroscope-Uniformity of Mat make darkness. This, therefore, affords ter throughout the Universe--Force and an infallible test. If two lights can Motion-Conservation of Energy--- Elecmake darkness, light is propagated, like tricity, Magnetisin, and Chemical Action- Dissipation of Heat-Birth and Death of sound, by waves. Now two lights do Worlds. constantly make darkness, as is proved every day by numerous experiments. THE contents of the material universe Therefore light is caused by waves. may be expressed in terms of Matter and But to have waves there must be a of Motion. Matter exists in the three medium through which the waves fold and interrelated states known as propagated. Without water you could solid, liquid, and gaseous, and it is con not have ocean waves ; without air you venient to include with these the appacould not have sound-waves. Waves are rently fourth state called the ethercal. in fact nothing but the successive forms The existence of this last-named is an assumed by i set of particles which, ON nerve. are ·20 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT way across the pathless ocean, and they give the following results: DIMENSIONS OF LIGHT-WAVES. COLOURS. NUMBER OF NUMBER OF Os. WAVES IN ONK CILLATIONS IN ONK INCH. SECOND. Rod Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet 39,000 42,000 44,000 47,000 51,000 54,000 57,000 477,000,000,000,000 506,000,000,000,000 535,000,000,000,000 576,000,000,000,000 622,000,000,000,000 658,000,000,000,000 699,000,000,000,000 when forced from a position of rest, tend to return to that position, and oscillate about it. Place a cork on the surface of a still pond, and then throw in a stone; what follows? Waves are propagated, which seem to travel outwards in circles, but if you watch the cork, you will see thatit does not really travel outwards, but simply rises and falls in the same place, This is equally true of waves of sound and waves of light. But the velocity with which the waves travel depends on the nature of the medium. In a dense medium of imperfect elasticity they travel slowly, in rare and elastic medium quickly. Now the velocity of a sound-wave in air is about 1,100 feet a second, that of the light-wave about 186,000 miles a second or about one million times greater. It is proved by mathematical calculation that, if the density of two media are the same, their elasticities are in proportion to the squares of the velocities with which a wave travels. The elasticity of ether, therefore, would be a million million times greater than that of air, which, as we know, is measured by its power of resisting a pressure of about 15 lbs. to the square inch. But the ether must in fact be almost infinitely rare, as well as almost infinitely elastic, for it causes no perceptible retardation in the motions of the earth and planets. It must be almost intinitely rare also because it permeates freely the interior of substances like glass and crystals, through which lightwaves pass, showing that the atoms or ultimate particles of which these substances are composed, minute as they are, must be floating in ether liko buoys floating on water or balloons in the air. The dimensions of the light-waves which travel through this ether at the rate of 186,000 miles a second can be accurately ineasured by strict mathematical calculations, depending mainly on the phenomena of interferences, i.e., of the intervals required between successive waves for the crest of one to overtake the depression of another and thus make two lights produce darkness. These calculations are much too intricate to admit of popular explanation, but they are as certain as those of the Nautical Almanac, based on the law of gravity, which enable ships to find their These are the colours whose vibrations affect the brain through the eye with the sensation of light, and which cause the sensation of white light when their different vibrations reach the eye simultaneously. But there are waves and vibrations on each side of these limits, which produce different effects, the longer waves with slower oscillations beyond the red, though no longer causing light causing heat, while the shorter and quicker waves beyond the violet cause chemical action, and are the most effective agents in photography. We must refer our readers to works treating specially of light for further details, and for an account of the vast variety of beautiful and interesting experiments with polarised light, coloured rings, and otherwise, to which the theory of waves proprigated through ether affords the key. For the present purpose it is sufficient to say that modern science compels us to assume such an ether extending everywhere, from the faintest star seen at a distance which requires thousands of years for its rays, travelling at the rate of 186,000 miles a second, to reach the earth, down to the infinitesimally small interspace between the atoms of the niinutest matter. And throughout the whole of this enormous range law prevails, ether vibrates and has always vibrated in the same definite manner, just as air vibrates by definite laws when the strings of & piano are struck by the hammers. I now return to the consideration of matter. What is matter? In the most general sense it is that which has weight, or is subject to the law of gravity, and, as shown above, it exists, as ponderable stuff, in the three forms of solid, liquid, ·MATTER 21 or gas, according to the amount of heat. Now let us push our analysis a step Diminish heat, and the particles approach further. How is matter made up of .closer and are linked together by mutual these elements; Up to and beyond the attraction, so as not to be readily parted; furthest point visible by aid of the microthis is a solid. Increase the heat up to a scope, matter is divisible. We can break certain point, and the particles recede a crystal into fragments, or divide a drop until their mutual attractions in the into drops, until they cease to be visible, interior of the mass neutralise one an though still retaining all the properties other, so that the particles can move of the original substance. Can we carry freely, though still held together as a on this process indefinitely, and is matter mass by the sum of all these attractions composed of something that can be acting as if concentrated at the centre of divided and subdivided into fractional gravity; this is the liquid state. Increase parts ud infinitum ? The answer is, No, the heat still more, and the particles it consists of ultimate but still definite separate until they get beyond the sphere particles which cannot be further subof their mutual attraction and tend to divided. How is this known? Because dart off into space, unless confined by we find by experience that substances some surface on which they exert pres will only combine in certain definite prosure ; this is a gas. portions either of weight or measure. The most familiar instance of this is For instance, in forming water exactly afforded by water, which, as we all know, eight grains by weight of oxygen comexists in the three forms of ice, water, bine with exactly one grain of hydrogen, and vapour or steam, according to the and if there is any excess or fractional dose of heat which has been incorporated part of either gas, it remains over in with it. its original form uncombined. In like Pursuing our inquiry further, the next manner, matter in the form of gas great fact in regard to matter is that it always combines with other matter in is not all uniform. While inost of the the same form by volumes which bear common forms with which we are con a definite and very simple proportion to versant are made up of mixed materials, each other, and the compound formed which can be taken to pieces and shown bears a definite and very simple ratio to separately, there are, as at present ascer the sun of the volumes of the combining tained, sine seventy-six substances which gases. Thus two volumes of hydrogen defy chemical analysis to decompose combine with one of oxygen to form two them, and must therefore be taken as volumes of water in the state of vapour. elementary substances. A great majority From these facts certain inferences can of these consist of substances existing be drawn. In the first place it is clear in minute quantities, and hardly known that matter ically does consist of minute outside the laboratories of chemists particles, which do not touch and form a The world of matter, as known to the continuous solid, but are separated by senses, is mainly composed of combina intervals which increase with increase of tions, more or less complex, of a few temperature. This is evident from the elements. Thus, water is a com;'ound of fact that we can pour a second or third two simple gases, oxygen and hydrogen; gas into a space already occupied by a air, speaking broadly, of oxygen and first one. Each gas occupies the enclosed nitrogen ; the solid framework of the space just as if there wero no other gas earth, mainly of combinations of oxygen present, and exerts its own proper preswith carbon, calcium, aluminium, silicon, sure on the containing vessel, so that the and a few other bases; salt, of chlorine total pressure on it is exactly the sum of and sodium; the vegetable world directly the partial pressures. It is easy to see and the animal world indirectly, mainly what this means. If a second regiment of complex combinations of oxygen, can be marched into a limited space of hydrogen, and nitrogen with carbon, and ground on which a first regiment is with smaller quantities of silicon, sulphur, already drawn up, it is evident that the potassium, sodium, and phosphorus. The first regiment must be drawn up in loose ordinary metals, such as iron, gold, silver, order, i.e., the soldier-units of which it is copper, tin, lead, mercury, zinc, nearly composed must stand so far apart that complete the list of what may be called other soldier-units can find room beordinary elements. tween them without disturbing the for- ·22 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN TIIOUGIIT mation. But the effect will be that the fire from the front will be increased, as for instance if a soldicr of the second regiment, armed with a six-shooter repeating rifle, takes his stand between two soldiers of the first regiinent armed with single-barrelled rifles, the effective fire will be increased in the ratio of 8 to 2. And this is precisely whai is meant by the staternent that the pressure of two gases in the same space is the sum of the separate pressures of each. It is clearly established that the pressure of a gas on a containing surface is crused by the bombarding to which it is subjected from the impacts of an almost infinite number of these almost infinitely small atoms, which, when let loose from the mutual attractions which hold them together in the solid and fluid state, dart about in all directions, colliding with one another and rebounding, like a set of little billiard-balls gone mad, and producing a certain average resultant of momentum outwards which is called pressure. Another simile may help us to conceive how the indivisibility of atoms is inforred from the fact that they only combine in definite proportions. Suppose a number of gentlemen and ladies proinenuding promiscuously in a The band strikes up a waltz, and they at once proceed to group, theinselves in couples rotating with rhythmical motion in definite orbits. Clearly, if there are more ladies than gentlemen, some of them will be left without partners. So, if instead of a waltz it were a threesomne reel, in which each gentleman led out two ladies, there must be exactly twice as many ladies as gentlemen for all to join in the dance. But if a gentleman could be cut up into fractional parts, and each fraction developed into a dancing gentleman, as primitive cells split up and produce fresh cells, it would not matter how many ladies there were, as each could be provided with a partner. Now this is strictly analogous to what occurs in chemical combination. Water is formed by each gentleman atom of oxygen taking out a lady atom of hydrogen in each hand, and the sets thus formed commence to dance threesome reels in definite time and measure, any surplus oxygen or hydrogen atoms being left out in the cold. Wonderful as it may appear, science enables us not only to say of these inconceivably minute atoms that they have a real existence, but to count and weigh them. This fact has, been accomplished by mathematical calculations based on laws which have been ascertained by a long series of experi- Inents on the constitution of gases. It is found that all substances, when in the form of gas, conform to three laws : 1. Their volume is inversely proportional to the pressure to which they are subjected. 2. Their volume is directly proportional to the temperature, 3. At the same pressure and temperature all gases have the same number of molecules in the same volume. From the last law it is obvious that if equal volumes of two gascs are of different weight, the cause must be that the molecules of the one are heavier than those of the other. This enables us to express the weight of the molecule of any other gas in some multiple of the unit afforded by the weight of the molecule of the lightest gas, which is hydrogen. Thus, the density of watery vapour being nine times that of hydrogen, we infer that the molecule of water weighs nine times as much as the molecule of hydrogen, and that of oxygen being eight times greater, we infer that the oxygen molecule is eight times heavier than that of hydrogen. These weights are checked by the other law which has been started, that chemical combination between different substances always takes place in certain definite proportions. Thus, whenever in a chemical process the original substances or the product are or might exist in the state of gas, it is always found that the definite proportions observed in the chemical process are either the proportions of the densities of the resspective cases or some simple multiple of these proportions. Thus, the weight of hydrogen being 2, which combines with a weight of oxygen equal to 16 to form a weight of watory vapour equal to 18, the density of the latter is to that of hydrogen ås 9 to 1, i.e., as 18 to 2. But to get to the bottom of the matter we must go a step further, and as we have decomposed substances into molecules, we must tilke the molecules themselves to pieces and see what they are made of. The molecule is the ultimate particle into which any substance can be divided retaining its own peculiar qualities. A niolocule of water is as truly water is a drop rooin.

·MATTER and mag: or a tumblerful. But when chemical de tion of these almost infinitely small mag composition takes place, instead of the nitudes, to quote an illustration given by molecule of water we have molecules of Sir W. Thomson as the result of mathetwo entirely different substances, oxygen matical calculation. Suppose a drop of and hydrogen. Nothing can well be more water were magnified so as to appear of unlike than the product water and the the size of the earth or with a diameter component parts of which it is made up. of 8,000 miles, the atoms of which it is Water is a fluid, oxygen a gas, water ex composed, magnified on the same scale, tinguishes fire, oxygen creates it. Water would appear of a size intermediate is a harmless drink, oxygen the base of between that of a rifle-bullet and of a the most corrosive acids. It is evident cricket-ball. that the water molecule is a composite, These figures show that space and thai its qualities depend, not on the nitude extend beyond the standards of essential qualities of the atoms which ordinary human sense, such as miles, feet, have combined to make it, but on the and inches, as far downwards into the manner of the cornbination, and the new region of the infinitely small as they do modes of action into which these a toins upwards into that of the infinitely great. have been forced. In his native war-paint And throughout the whole of this enoroxygen is a furious savage; with a hydro mous range law prevails. The same law gen atom in each hand he is a polished of gravity gives weight to molecules an gentleman. atoms, makes an apple fall to the ground, Our theory, therefore, leads beyond and causes double stars to revolve round molecules to atoms, and we have to con their centre of gravity in elliptic orbits. sider these particles of a still smaller The law of polarity which converts ironorder than molecules, as the ultimate filings into small magnets under the inindivisible units of matter of which we fluence of a permanent magnet or electric have been in search And even these we current, animates the smallest atom. must conceive of as corks, as it were, Atoms arrange themselves into molecules, floating in an ocean of ether, causing and molecules into crystals, very much waves in it by their own proper move as magnetised iron-filings arrange themments, and agitated by all the successive selves into regular curves. And the great waves which vibrate through this ether law seems to prevail universally throughocean in the form of light and heat. out the material, as it does also through- Working on these data, a variety of out the moral world, that you cannot refined mathematical calculations nade have a North without a South Pole, a by Clausius, Clerk Maxwell, Sir W. Thom positive without a negative, a right withson (now Lord Kelvin), and other eminent out a wrong; and that error consists mathematicians, have given us approxi mainly in what the poet calls “the falsemate figures for the actual size, weight, hood of extremes that is, in allowing and velocities of atoms and molecules. the attraction of one pole, or of one The results are truly marvellous. A mil opinion, so to absorb us as to take no limetre is the one thousandth part of a account of its opposite. metre, or roughly one twenty-fifth of an The universality of law has received inch. The magnitudes with which we wonderful confirmation of late years from have to deal are all of an order where the the discovery made by the spectroscope standard of measurement is expressed by that the sun, the planets, and the rethe millionth part of a millimetre. The motest stars are all composed of matter volume of a molecule of air is only a small identical with that into which chemical fraction of that of a cube whose side would analysis has resolved the constituent be the millionth of a millimetre. A cubic matter of the earth. This has been proved centimetre, or say a cube whose side is in the following way: between one-third and one-half of an inch, If a bes of light is admitted into a contains 21,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 darkened room through a small hole or molecules. The number of impacts re narrow slit, and a triangular piece of ceived by each molecule of air during glass, called a prism, is interposed in its one second will be 4,700 millions. The path, the image thrown on a screen is distance traversed between each impact à rainbow-tinted streak, intersected by averages 95 millionths of a millimetre. numerous fine dark lines, which is called It may assist in forming some concep a spectrum. If, instead of solar light light ·24 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT from other luminous sources is similarly refrangibility, i.e., to the velocity of the treated, it is found that all elementary particular wave of light which the parsubstances have their peculiar spectra. ticular vibration of those particular atoms Light from solid or liquid substances is able to propagate. gives a continuous spectrum, light froin When pressure is increased so that the gases or glowing vapours gives a spect particles are brought closer together, ruin of bright lines separated from each their vibrations made more energetic other, but always in definite positions and their collisions more frequent, more according to the nature of the substance. waves, and waves of different qualities The next great step in the discovery, was are started, and more lines appear in the that these bright lines become dark lines spectrum and the lines widen out, until when a light of greater intensity, coming at length when the gas becomes very fromasolid nucleus, is transmitted through dense, some of the lines overlap and any an atmosphere of such gases or vapours. approach is inace towards a continuous We can thus photograph the spectrum of spectrum. Finally, when the particles glowing hydrogen, sodium, iron, or other are brought so near together that the substances, and placing it below x photo substance assumes a fluid or solid state, graph of a solar or stellar spectrum, see the number of wave-producing vibrations if any of the dark lines of the latter are becomes so great that a complete system coincident in position with the bright of different light-waves is propagated, lines of the former. If they are, wo mity and the lines of the spectrum are multibe certain that these substance's actually plied until they coalesce and form a conexist in the sun or star. It is, in fact, tinuous band of rainbow-tinted light. If just the same thing as if we had been ablé the particles of the gas, instead of being to bring down a jar-full of the solar or single atoms, are niore complex, as niolestellar matter and analyse it in our labo cules or compound molecules, the vibraratories. tions are more complex and the different It is difficult to convey any adequate resulting light-waves more numerous, so description of these grand discoveries that the lines in the spectrum are more made by the new science of spectroscopy numerous, and in some cases they coalesce without referring to special works on the so as to form shaded bands, or what are subject; but it may be possible to give called fluted lines, instead of simple lines. sone general idea of the principles on Moreover, whatever light-waves are which they are based. originated by the vibrations of the par- As has been shown, light consists of ticles of gils are absorbed into those waves propagated through ether. These vibrations and extinguished, if they waves are started by the vibrations of originate from the vibrations of some the ultimate particles of matter, which, inore energetic p:crticles of another subwhether in the simplest form of atoms, stance outside of it, whose light-waves, in the more complex form of molecules, travelling along the ether, pass through or in the still more complex form of com the gas, and are thus shown as dark lines pound inolecules, have their own peculiar in the spectrum of the other source of and distinct vibrations. These vibrations light. are increased, diminished, or otherwise We can now understand how the assermodified by variations of heat and by the tion is justified that we can analyse the collisions which occur between the par composition of the sun and stars as certicles froin their own propor motions. If tainly as if we had a jak full of their we take the simplest case, that of matter substance to analyse in our laboratory, in the form of a girs or vapour composed The first glande at a spectrum, tells us. of single atoms, at a tenperature just whether the luminous source is solid, sufficier:t to become luminous and at a fluid, or gaseous. If its spectrum is conpressure small enough to keep the atoms inuous is solid or fluid; we know this widely apart, the vibrations are all of one for certain, 'but can tell nothing more. sort, viz., that peculiar to the elementary But if it consists of bright lines, we know substance to which they belong, and one that it comes direct from matter in the set of waves only is propagated by them form of luminous gas, and knowing from through the ether. The spectrum, there experiments in the laboratory the exact fore, of such a gas is a single line of light, colours and situations of the lines formed in the definito position which is due to its by the different elements of which earthly ·MATTER 25 matter is composed, we can see whether incidentally. These, however, are equally the lines in the spectra of heavenly inatter essential coinponents of the phenomena do or do yot correspond with any of them. of the universo. What is force? In the If bright lines correspond we are sure last analysis it is the unknown cause that the substances correspond, both as which we assume for motion, or the term tootheir elementary atoms and their con in which we sum up whatever produces dition as glowing gas. If dark lines in or tends to produce it. The idea of force, the spectrum of the heavenly body corre like so many other of our ideas, is taken spond with bright lines in that of a from our own sensations. If we lift a known earthly substance, we are certain weight or bend a bow, we are conscious that the substances are the same and in of doing so by an effort. Something the same state of gas, but that the solar which we call will produces motion in or stellar spectrum proceeds from an the molecules of the brain, which is transintensely heated interior solid or fluid mitted by the nerves to the muscles, nucleus, whose waves have passed through where it libcrates a certain amount of an outer envelope or atmosphere of this energy stored up by the chemical coingas. position and decomposition of the atoms Applying these principles, although the of food which we consume. This contracts science is still in its infancy and many the muscle, and the force of its contracinteresting discoveries remain to be made, tion, transmitted by a system of pulleys this grand discovery has become an and levers to the hand, lifts the weight. axiomatic fact--Matter is alike every If we let go the weight it falls, and the where. The light of stars up to the ex force which lifted it reappears in the treme boundary of the visible universe force with which it strikes the ground. is composed mainly of glowing hydrogen, If we do not let go the weight but place the same identical hydrogen as we get by it on a support at the height to which we decomposing water by i voltaic battery. have raised it, it does not fall, no motion Of the 76 elementary substances enu ensues, but the lifting force remains merated by cheinists, 36 are known cor stored-up in a tendency to motion, and tainly to exist in the sun's atmosphere. can be inade to reappear as motion at The elements whoso presence is proved any time by withdrawing the support, comprise many of those which are most when the weight will fall. It is evident, common in the composition of the earth, therefore, that force may exist in two ils hydrogen, carbon, iron (represented forms, either as actually causing motion, by about 2,000 lines in the solar spec or as causing a tendency to motion. trum), lead, calcium, aluninium, magne In this generalised form it las been sium, sodium, potassium, etc., and if agreed to call it energy, as less liable to others, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and be obscured by the ordinary impressions chlorine have not yet been found, the attached to the word force, which are explanation is that when a mixture of mainly derived from experiences of actual the incandescent vapours of the metals motion cognizable by the senses. We and metalloids (or non-metallic clemen speak, therefore, of energy as of sometary substances, to which class both oxy thing which is the basis or primum mobile gen and nitrogen belong), or their com of all motion or tendency to motion, pounds, iscxamined with the spectroscope, whetlier it be in the grosser forms of the spectra of the metalloids always yield gravity and mechanical work, or in the before that of the metals. llenco tho subtler forms of molecular and atomic absence of the lines of oxygen and other motions causing the phenomena of beat, metalloids, carbon and silicon excepted, light, electricity, magnetism, and chemiamong the vast crowd of lines in the solar cal action. This energy may exist either spectrum. Then, too, in extreme states in the form of actual motion, when it is of rarefaction of the sun's absorbing layer, called energy of motion, or in that of the absorption of the oxygen is too small tendency to motion, wlien it is called to be sensible to us. The main fact is energy of position. Thus the bent how firmly established that matteris the same has energy of position which, when the throughout all space, from the minutest string is let go, is at once converted into atom to tho reniotest star. energy of motion in the flight of the arrow. Thus far we have been treating of Respecting this energy modern science matter only, and of force and motion but has arrived at this grand generalisation, ·26 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGAT that it is one and the same in all its If we wish to carry our inquiry a step different manifestations, and can neither further back and ask where the original be created nor destroyed, so that all these energy came from which has undergone varied manifestations are mere transfor theso transformations, the answer must mations of the same primitive energy be, mainly from the sun. The sun's rays, from one form to another. This is what acting on the chlorophylor green matter is meant by the principle of the "Con of the plants of the coal era, core asunder servation of Energy.' the atoms of carbon and oxygen which It was arrived at in this way. Speak formed the carbonic acid in the atmosing roughly, it has long been known that phere, and locked up a store of energy heat could generate mechanical power, as in the form of carbon in the coal which seen in the stean-engine; and conversely is burned to produce the steam. In that mechanical power could generate like manner it stored-up the energy in heat, as is seen when a sailor, in a chill the form of carbon in the vegetable pronorth-easter, claps his arms together on ducts which, either directly, or indirectly his breast to warm himself. But it was after having passed through the body of reserved for Dr. Joule to give this fact some animal, supplied the food, whose the scientific precision of a natural law, slow combustion in the man or horse by actually measuring the amount of heat supplied the energy which did the work. that was added to a given weight of water But where did the energy come from by a given expenditure of mechanical which the sun has been pouring forth for power, and conversely the amount of countless ages in the form of light and mechanical work that could be got froin heat, and of which our carth only inter- & given expenditure of heat. cepts the minutest portion? This is a A vast number of carefully-conducted mystery, not yet completely solve:cl, but experiments have led to the conclusion one real cause we can sce, which has that if a kilogramme be allowed to fall certainly operated and perhaps been the through 424 metres and its motion be only one, viz., the mechanical energy of then suddenly stopped, suthicient heat the condensation by gravity of the atonis will be generated to raise the tempera which originally formed the nebulous ture of one kilogramme of water by 1° matter out of wlrich the sun was made. Centigrade ; and conversely this amount If we ask, how came the atoms into of heat would be sufficient to raise ono existence endowed with this marvellous kilogramme to a height of 424 metres. energy, we have reached the furthest If, therefore, we take as our unit of bounds of human knowledge, and can work that of raising one kilogramme only reply in the words of the poet : one metre, and as our unit of heat that “Behind the veil, behind the veil." necessary to raise one kilogramıne of We can only form metaphysical conwater 1° Centigrade, we may express ceptions, or I might rather call them the the proportion of heat to work by saying vaguest guesses. One is, that they were that one unit of heat is equal to 424 units created and endowed with their eleof work; or, as it is sometimes expressed, mentary properties by an all-wise and that the number 424 is the inechanical all-powerful Creator. This is Theism. equivalent of heat. Another, that thought is the only But the question may be asked, what reality, and that all the phenomena of does this mean, how can mechanical work the universe are thoughts or ideas of one be really transformed into heat or vice universal, all-pervading Mind. This is versa ? The answer is, the energy which Pantheism. was supplierl by chemical action to the Or again, we mny frankly acknowmuscles of the man or horse, or to tho ledge that the real essence and origin of water converted into steam by combus things are behind the veil," and not tion of coal, which originated the ine knowable or even conceivable by any chanical work, was first transformed into faculties with which the human mind is its equivalent amount of mechanical endowed in its present state of existence. energy of motion, and then, when that This is Agnosticism. motion was arrested, was transformel There is another conception, of which into heat, which is simply the same we roay certainly say that it is not tenenergy transformed into increased mole able that is Atheism. For it is the cular motion. spirit that denies without warrant for ·MATTER 27 . an denial, and pronounces a verdict which & continuous current. This current is arrived at without evidence. an energetic agent which produces But these speculations lead us into the various effects. It deflects the magnetic misty regions where, like Milton's fallen needle, as is seen in the electric telegraph. angels, we find no end in wandering It creates magnetisın, as is seen when the mazes lost." Let us return to the solid poles of the battery are connected by a ground of fact, on which alone the wire wrapped round and round a cylinder human mind can stand firmly, and, like of soft iron, so as to make the current Antæus, gather fresh vigour every timo circulate at right angles to the axis it touches it for further efforts to enlarge formed by the cylinder. In fact, all the boundaries of knowledge and extend magnetism' may be considered as the the domain of Cosmos oyer Chaos. summing up at the two opposite ex- The transformation of energy which trenities or poles of an axis, of the. we have seen to exist in the case of eflects of electric currents circulating mechanical work and heat, is not con round it; as, for instance, the earth is a fined to those two cases only, but is a great magnet because currents caused by universal law applicable to all actions the action of the sun circulate round it and arrangenients of matter which in nearly parallel to the equator. Electric volve motions of atoms, molecules, or currents further show their energy by masses, and therefore imply the existence attracting, and repelling one another, of energy. In heat we have had those flowing in the same direction atexample of energy exerted in molecular tracting, and those in opposite dimotion and molecular separation. In rections repelling, the same effect showchemical action we have energy exerted ing itself in magnets, which are in subin the separation of atoms, severing stance collections of circular currents them from old coinbinations and mutual flowing from right to left or left to right attractions, and bringing them within according as they are positive or negative. the sphere of new ones. In electricity, Again, currents produce an effect by and magnetism, which is another form inducing currents in other bodies placed of electricity, we have energy of position near them, very much as the vibrations which manifests itself electrical of a tuning-fork induce vibrations and separation, by which inatter becomes bring out a corresponding note from the charged with two opposite energies, strings of a piano or violin ready to positive and negative, which accumulaté sound it. When a coil of wiro is conat separate poles, or on separate surfaces, nected with a battery and a current with an amount of tension which may be passes through it, if it is brought near to reconverted into the original amount of another isolated coil it induces a current energy of motion when the spark, passing in an opposite direction, which, when it between them, restores their electrical recedes from it, is changed into a curequilibrium. Of this we have an rent in the same direction. ample in the ordinary electrical machine, These principles are illustrated by the where the original energy comes from the ordinary dynamo, by which the energy mechanical force which turns the handle, of mechanical work exerted in making and is given back when the electric spark magnets revolve in presence of currents, brings things back to their original and by various devices accumulating state. electric energy, is made available either We have also energy of motion, when for doing other niechanical work, such as instead of electrical separation and driving a wheel, or for doing molecular tension we have a flow or current of or atomic work by producing heat and electricity producing the effect of the light. electric spark in a slow, quiet, and con- Another transformation of the mnergy tinuous manner. Thus, in the voltaic of electric currents is into heat, light, or battery, the free energy created. by the chemical action. If the two poles cf a ditference of chemical action of an acid battery are connected by a thin platinum on plates of different metals, is trans wire it will be beated to redness in a few formed into a current which charges two seconds, the friction or resistance to the poles with opposite electricities, and current in passing through the limited when the poles are brought together and section of the thin wire producing the circuit is closed, tlows through it in great heat. If the wire is thicker but in ex- B ·28 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT more OM no will equally be produced, but the clouds, from which it is deposited slowly. as rain or snow. But in the case If the poles of the battery are made of heat there is nosuch self-restoring process, carbon, or some substance the particles and the tendency is always towards its of which remain solid during intense dissipation; or in other words, towards heat, wlien they are brought nearly to a more uniforin distribution of heat gether the current will be completed by throughout all existing matter. The an arc of intensely brilliant light, and process is very slow; the original fund the carbon will slowly buru away. This of high-temperature, heat is enormous, is the clectric light so commonly used when and as long as matter goes on condensgreat illuminating power is wanted. ing fresh supplies of heat are, so to Again, the electric current may employ speak, squeezed out of it. its energy in effecting chemical action. Still there is a limit to condensation, If the poles of a battery, instead of being while there is no limit to the tendency brought together, are plunged into a of heat to diffuse itself frorn hotter to vessel of water, decomposition will begin. colder matter until all temperatures aro Oxygen will rise in small bubbles at the equalized. The energy is not destroyed ; positive pole, and hydrogen at the it is still there in the same average negative. "If these two gases are col amount of total heat, though no longer lected together in the game vessel, and differentiated into greater and lesser an electric current, in the intense and hreats, and therefore longer momentary form of a spark, passed available for life, motion, or any other through then, they will combine with forni of transformation. This seems to explosion into the exact amount of be the case with the moon, which, being water which was decomposed in their so much smaller, has sooner equalised its forination. heat with surrounding space, and is up- Everywhere, therefore, we find the parently a burnt-out and dried-up cinder same law of universal application, without air or water. And this, as far as Energy, like mitter, cannot be created we can see, must be the ultimate fate of or destroyed, but only transformed. It all planets, suns, and solar systems. is therefore, in one sense, eternal. But Fortunately the process is extremely there is another point of view from which slow, for even our small earth has onthis has to be regardedt. joyed air, water, sunshine, and all the Mechanical work, as we have seen, present conditions necessary for life for can always be converted into heat, and the whole geological period, certainly heat can, under certain conditions, be from the Silurian epoch downwards, if reconverted into mechanical work; but not earlier, which cannot well be less not under all conditions. The heat than 100 millions of years, and may be must pass from something at a higher much inore. Still time, even if reckoned tomperature into sounething at a lower. by hundreds of millions of years, is not If the condenser of a steain-engine were eternity; and as, looking through the always at the sanie temperature as telescope at nebulie which appear to be the boiler, we should get no work out of condensing about central nuclei, it. It is easy to understand how this is perchance dimly discern a beginning, so, the case if we figure to ourselves t river looking at the moon and reasoning froni running down into a lake. If the stream established principles as to the dissipais dammed up at two different levels, tion of heat, we can dimly discern an each dam, as long as there is water in it, end. What we really can see is that will turn a mill-wheel. But if all the throughout the whole of this enormous water runs down into the lake and, rango of space and time law prevails owing to a dry season, there is no fresh that, given the original atoms and supply, the wheels will stop and we can energies with their original qualities, get no more work done. So with heat, everything else follows in a regular and if it all runs down to one uniform tem and inevitable succession; and that the perature it can no longer be made whole material universe is a clock, so available to do work. In the case of peffoctly constructed from the beginning the river, fresh water is supplied at the ils to require no outside interference higher levels, by the sun's energy rais during the time it has to run to keep ing it by evaporation from the meas to it going with absolute correctnesa. we ·LIFE 29 were built up by layer upon layer of squared stones upon surfaces formed of CHAPTER IV regular figures, and inclined to each other at determinate angles. LIFX.. The living plant or animal grows from Essence of Life-Simplest Form, Protoplasm within by taking supplies of fresh matter -Monera and Protista-Animal and Vege into its inner laboratory, where it is tablo Life-Spontaneous Generation--He. worked up into a variety of complex velopment of Species from Primitive Cells products needed for the existence and -Supernatural Theory-Zoological Pro. reproduction of life. After supplying vinces-Separate Creations--Law or Miracle theso, the residue is given back in various --Darwinian Theory-Struggle for Life forms to the inorganic world, and the Survival of the Fittest-Development and final residue of all is given back by death, Design-The Hand-Proof required to es. tablish Darwin's Theory as a Law-Species which is the ultimate end of all life. -- IIybrids--Man subject to Law. The simplest form of life, in which it first emerges from the inorganic into the The universe is divided into two worlds organic world, consists of protoplasm, or, --the inorganic, or world of dead matter; ag it has been called, the physical basis of and the organic, or world of life. What lifo. Protoplasm is a colourless semi-fluid is life? In its essence it is a state of or jelly-like substance, which consists of matter in wliich the particles are in a albuminoid matter, or in other words, of continued state of flux, and the indi a heterogeneous carbon-compound of very vidual existence depends, not on the same complex chemical composition. It exists particles remaining in the same definite in every living cell, and performs the shape, but on the permanence of a definite functions of nutrition and reproduction, mould or form through which fresh par as well as of sensation and motion. In ticles are continually entering, forming its simplest form, that of the microscopic now combinations and passing away. It monera or protista, the lowest of living may assist in forining a conception of this beings, we find an apparently homoit we imagine ourselves to be looking at geneous structureless piece of protoplasm, a mnountain the top of which is enveloped without any differentiation of parts. Tho in a driving mist. The niountain is dead monera are simple living globules of matter, the particles of which continue jelly, without even a nucleus or any sort fixed in the rocks. But the cloud-form of organ, and yet they perforin all the which envelops it is a mould into which essential functions of life without any fresh particles of vapour are continually ditforent parts being told off for parentering and becoming visible on tlie ticular functions. Every particle or molewindward side, and passing away and cule is of the saine chemical composition disappearing, to leewaret. If we add to and a facsimile of the whole body, as in this the conception that the particles do the case of a crystal. They are, therenot, in the case of the cloud, simply fore, the first step from the inorganic enter in and pass away without change, into the organic world, and if spontaneous but aro digested, that is, undergo chemical generation takes place anywhere, it is changes by which they are partly assimi in the passage of the chemical elements lated and worked-up into component from the simple and stable combinations parts of the mould, ani partly thrown off of the former into the complex and plastic in new.combinations, we shall arrive at coinbinations of the latter. something which is not far off the ulti The next step upwards is to the cell in unato idea of what constitutes living which the protoplasm is enclosed in a matter, in its simplest form of the pro skin or membrane of modified protoplasm, toplasm, or speck of jelly-like substance, and a nucleus, or denser spot, is developed which is shown to be the primitive basis in the enclosed mass. This is the primary or raw material of all the moit complex element from which all the more comfornis both of vegetable and animal life. plicated forms of life are built-up. Each Digestion, therefore, is the primary attri coll seains to have an independent life of bute. A crystal.grows from without, by its own, and a faculty of reproduction by taking on fresh particles and building splitting into fresh cells similar to itself, thern up in regular layers according to which multiply in geometrical progrestixed laws, just as the pyramids of Egypt sion, assimilating the elements of their ·90 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT AMEBA. substance from the inorganic world so to enable us to distinguish clearly between rapidly as to provide the requisite raw animal and vegetable, and they have been material for higher structures. called by some naturalists Protista, while The first organised living forms are extremely minute, and can only be recognised by powerful microscopes. A filtered infusion of hay, allowed to stand for two days, will swarm with living things, a number of which do not exceed tobooth of an inch in diameter. Minute as these animalcula are, they are thoroughly alive. They dart about and digest; the smallest speck of jelly-like substance shoots out branches or processes to seize food, and if these come in collision with other substances they withdraw them. They exist in countless myriads, AMERA dividing into two. and perform a very important part in the economy of nature. They are the scav others designate them as Protozou or engers of the universe, and remove the Protophytil, according as they show more remains of living matter after death, resemblance to one or the other form of which would otherwise accumulate until life. But it is often so doubtful that in they choked-up the earth. This they do looking at the same organisin tlırough a by the process of putrefaction, which is microscope, Huxley was inclined to due mainly to the multiplication of little consider it as a plant, while Tyndall rod-like creatures known as bacteria, exclaimed that he could as soon believe which work up the once living, now dead, that a sheep was a vegetable. matter into fresh elements, again fitted In the next stage upwards, however, life to play their part in the inorganic and subdivides itself into two great kingdoms, organic worlds. that of the vegetable and of the animal One of the simplest of these forms is world. Alike in their general definition the amaba, which is nothing but a naked as contrasted with inorganic matter, and little lump of cell-matter, or plasma, in their common origin from an embryo containing a nucleus ; and yet this little cell, which divides and subdivides until speck of jelly moves freely, it shoots out cell-aggregates are formed, from which tongues or processes and gradually draws the living form is built up by a process itself up to them with a sort of wave of evolution, the plant differs from the like motion; it eats and grows, and in animal in this : that the forner feeds growing reproduces itself by contracting directly on inorganic matter, while the in the middle and splitting up into two latter can only feed on it indirectly, after independent amæbæ. it has been manufactured by the plant The germs of these various animalcula into vegetable substance. swarm in the air, and carry seeds of This is universally true, for if we dine infection wherever they find a soil fitted on beef, we dine practically on the grass to receive them; and thus assist the which the ox ate; that is, on the carbon, survival of the fittest in the struggle of oxygen, hydrogen, and other simple elelife, by eliminating weak and unhealthy ments which the grass, under the stimulus individuals and species. Thus when the of light and sunshine, minufactured into potato, the vine, or the silkworin has had complex compounds; and which the ox its constitution enfcebled by prolonged again, by a second process, manufactured artificial culture, there are germs always from these compounds into others still ready to revenge the violation of natural more complex, and more easily assimilated Jaws, and bring the survivors back to a by us in the process of digestion. But in more heathy condition. In like manner no case can we dine, as the plant does, the germs of cholera, typhoid, and scarlet on the simple elements, and thrive on a fever, enforce the observance of sanitary diet of air and water, with a small principles. admixture of nitrate of ammonia, and of In this simple form the lowest forms of phosphates, sulphates and chlorides, of life are not yet sufliciently differentiuted å fow primitive metals. Vegetable life.

·LIFE 31 acid gas. therefore, is the producer, and animal this point of view the immediate question life the consumer, of the organic world. is, how far unbroken sequence, which • Practically the plant derives most of has been shown to prevail universally its substance from the carbonic acid gas throughout space, time, and inorganio in the atmosphere, which green leaves matter, can be shown to prevail equally under the stimulus of light and heat have throughout the world of life. the faculty of decomposing, and abstract Up to a certain point this admits of the carbon giving out the oxygen; while positive proof. It is as certain that all the animal, by a reverse process, burns individual life, from the most elementary up the compounds manufactured by the protoplasm up to the highest organism, plant, principally out of this carbon, by Man, originates in a minute or embryo the oxygen obtained from the air by the cell, as it is that oxygen and hydrogen process of respiration, exhaling the sur combined in certain proportions make plus carbon in the form of carbonic water. But if we try to go back one step further, behind the cell, we are stopped. The balancing effect of these two pro In the inorganic world we can reason our cesses may be seen in any, aquarium, way beyond the microscopic matter to the where animals and vegetables live to molecule, and from the molecule to the gether in water which is kept pure, while atom, and are only arrested when we it would become stagnant and poisonous come to the ultimate form of matter, and in a few hours, if one of the two forms of of energy, out of which the universe is life were removed. All that the animal built up. But, in the case of life, we are requires therefore for its existence-ma stopped two steps short of this, and canterials with which to build up its frame not tell how the cell containing the germ and supply waste; heat with which to of life is built up out of the simpler maintain its circulating fluids and other elements. substances at a proper temperature ; Many attempts have been made to motive power or energy to enable it to bridge over this gulf, and to show how life move, fcel, and, in the case of the higher may originate in chemical compounds, animals, to think-are all proceeds of but hitherto without success. Experithe slow combustion of materials derived ments have been made which, for a time, from the vegetable world in the oxygen seemed to show that spontaneous genera. breathed from the air, just as the work tion was a scientific fact, i.e.., that the done by a steam-engine is the product of lowest forms of life, such as bacteria and a similar combustion, or chemical com amoebæ, really did originate in infusions bination of the oxygen of the air with containing no germs of life; but they the coal shovelled into the fire-box. These have been met by, counter experiments distinctions, however, between animals confirming Harvey's dictum, "Omne vivum and vegetables are not quite absolute, ex ovo," or, all life comes from an egg, for, even in the more highly-organised i.e., from antecedent germs of life, and the forms of life, there is a border-land where verdict of the best authorities, such as some plants seem to perform the functions Pasteur, Tyndall, and Huxley is, thatsponof animals, as in those which catch and taneous generation has been “defeated consume flies and eat and digest pieces along the whole line.” This verdict is of raw meat. perhaps too unqualified, for it appears Those who wish to pursue this interest that, on the assumption with which both ing subject further will do well to read sides started, all organic life was dethe Chapter on Living Matter in Huxley's stroyed by exposure to a heat of 212°, or “Physiography," where they will find it the boiling-point of water, the advocates more fully explained, with the inimit of spontaneous generation had the best able clearness which characterises all the of it, as low forms of life did appear in writings of an author who was at the same infusions which had been exposed to this time one of the first scientific authorities heat, and then hermetically sealed, so as and one of the greatest masters of to prevent any germs from entering. English prose. But my present Object But it was replied that, as a hard pea is not to write a scientific treatise, but takes more boiling than a soft one, it shortly to sum up the ascertained results might very well be that heat sufficient to of modern science, with a view to their destroy life in any moist organism of bearings on modern thought; and from sutlicient size to be scen by the microscope.

·32 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN TAOUGHT nan. might not destroy the gorminating power The world of lifo is not one and uniform, of ultra-microscopic gernis in a very dry but consists of a vast variety of different state. And this position seems to have species, from the speck of protoplasm up been confirmed by various experiments, to the forest tree, and froin the humble showing that such ultra-microscopic ainaba up to man, each one, at any rate germs really do exist, and are given forth within long intervals of time, breeding in the last life stage of the bacteria which true and keeping to its own separate cause putrefaction ; and that if they are and peculiar path along the line of absent or destroyed by repeated applica evalution. tions of heat, infusions will keep sweet The first germ, or nucleatcd cell, of a for ever in optically pure air. bacterium develops into other bacteria Above all, the germ theory has re and nothing else, thatof a coral into corals, ccived confirmation from the brilliant of an oak into oaks, of an elephant into practical results to which it has led in elephants, of a man into man. In the the hands of Pasteur, enabling him to latter case we can trace the embryo in detect, and to a great extent eradicato, its various stages of growth through forms the causes which had led to the oidium having a certain analogy to those of the of the vine and the pebrine of the silk- fish, the reptile, and the lower mammals, worm, thereby saving millions to the until it linally takes tlint of the human industries of France. The germ theory infant. But we have no experience of a has also led to important results in fish, a frog, or a dog, born of human medical science, and is pointing towards parents, or of any of the lower animals the possibility of coinbating the most ever producing anything resembling a fatal diseases by processes analogous to that by which vaccination has almost How can this he explained ? Naturally freed tho huinan race from the scourgo of the first attempt at explanation was by small-pox. miracle. At a time when everything On the whole, therefore, we must be was explained by miracle, when all content to accept a verdict of “Not unusual occurrences were attributed to proven in the case of spontaneous supernatural agency, and men lived in generation, and admit that as regards an atınosphere of providential interthe first origin of life, science fails us, ferences, witchcraft, magic, and, all sorts and that there is at present no kuown of divine and diabolic agencies, nothing law that will account for it. seoined casier than to say that the beasts of Should spontaneous generation ever be the field, the birds of the air, and the fishes proved to be a fact, it will doubtless be in of the sea, are all distinct after their creating living protoplasın from inorganic kind, because God created them so. elements at its earliest stage, before it But as the supernatural faded away has been differentiated even into the and disappeared in other departments primitive form of a nucleated cell or that where it hud so long reigned supreme, of an amaba. This is what the doctrine and science began to classify, arrange, of evolution would lead us to expect, for and accumulate facts as they really are, it would be in contradiction to it to it became more and more difficult, or suppose that the starting point could be rather impossible, to accept this simple interpolated at any stage subsequent to explanation. The very first step de the lowest. It may be also that this step stroyed the validity of all the traditional could only be made under conditions of myths which described the origin of life heat, pressure, and otherwise, which from one simultaneous act of creation at existed in the earlier stage of the earth's a single centre. The earth is divided existence, but have longed since passed into separate zoological provinces, each away. with its own peculiar animal and vege- This, however, is only a small part of table world. The kangaroo, for instance, the difficulty we have to encounter in is found in Australia and there only. By reducing life to law. no possibility could the aboriginal kan- These primeval embryo cells, like as garod have jumped at one bound from they are in appearance, contain within Mount Ararat to Australia, leaving, no them the germs of an almost infinite trace of his passage in any. intermediate diversity of evolutions, each running its district. This isolation of life in separate separate course distinct from the others. provinces applies so rigidly, that we may.

·LIFE 33 sum it up by saying genorally that there provinces is enormously enhanced if we are no foriu8 of life common to two look beyond the existing condition of provinces . unless where migration is things, and trace back the geological possible, or has been possible in past record. We must suppose separate creagéological periods. tions for all the separate provinces of In islands at a distance from con the separate successive foripations from tinents, we find conmon forms of marine the Silurian upwards. And the more we life, for the sea affords a means of com investigate the conditions of life either munication, and often common forms of under existing circumstances or in those bird, insect, and vegetable life, where of past geological epochs, the more they may have been wafted by the winds ; are we driven to enormously multiply but forms which neither in the adult nor the number of separate creations which germ state could swim or tly, or be would be necessary to account for the transported by something which did diversity of species. We find life shading swim or fly, are invariably wanting. otr into an infinite variety of alınost im- New Zealand affords a most conspicuous perceptible gradations from the highest instance of this. Here is a large country organism, man, to the lowest, or speck of with a soil and climate exceptionally well protoplasm, and we can draw no hard adapted to support a large amount of and fast line and say, up to this point animal life of the higher orders, and yet, life originated by natural processos, and with the exception of two species of bats, beyond it we must have recourse to it had absolutely no mammal before they miracle. Either all life or none is a were introduced by man, the dog being product of evolution acting by defined probably introduced by the Maoris. If law, and the affirmation of law is the special creations took place to replenish negation of miracle. the earth as soon as any portion of its Every day brings us an account of surface becomes fit to sustain it, why some new discovery linking forms of life were there no animals in New Zealand? nearer together and bridging over in- Or, in the Andaman Islands, in the Gulf tervals thought to be impassable. The of Bengal, which are as large as Ireland, discovery of insectivorous plants, which covered with luxuriant vegetation, and also devour and digest pieces of raw within 300 miles of the coast of Asia, where nieat, has added to the difficulty which similar jungles swarm with elephants, has been long felt, particularly in the tigers, deer, and all the varied forms of humbler forms of life, of drawing any mammalian life, there are no mammalia clear line of demarcation between the except a pigmy black savage and a pigmy animal and vegetable worlds. black pig, the latter probably introduced Microscopic research brings to light by man. fresh facts confounding our fixed ide:ls The sharpness of the division between as to the permanence of particular modes zoological provinces is well illustrated by of reproducing life, and showing that that drawn by the Straits of Lombok, the same organisin may run through where a channel, not twenty miles wide various metainorphoses in the course of separates the fauna of Asia and Australia its life-cycle, during some of which it so completely that there are no species of may be sexual and in others asexual, land animals, and only a few of birds and i.e., it may reproduce itself alternately insccts, common to the two sides of a by the co-operation of two beings of channel not so wide as the Straits of opposite sex, and by fissure or budding Dover. from one being only which is of no sex. There is no possibility of arcounting These, and a multitude of other similar for this, except by supposing that the facts, complicate enormously the prodeep water fissure of the Straits of bloms of life and its developments, Lombok has existed from remote geo whether we attempt to solve it by calling logical periods, and bawed the inigrntion in aid a perpetual series of innumerable southwards of those Asiatic animals, miraculous interpositions, or by apwhich, as long as they found dry land, poaling to ordinary known laws of migrated north wårds and westwaris till Nature. they were stopped by the Polar and Is the latter solution possible, and can Atlantic Oceans. This difficulty of re the organic world be reduced, as the quiring special creations for separate inorganic world has been with all its ·34 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT mysteries and the infinities of space, time, assuredly be classed by naturalists as and matter, from chaos into cosmos, and separate species. shown to depend on permanent and This is the work of man; is there any. harmonious laws? Is the world of life, thing similar to it going on in Nature ? like that of matter, a clock, so perfectly Yes, says Darwin, there is a tendency in constructed from the first that it goes all life, and especially in the lower forms without winding up or regulating ? or is of life, to reproduce itself vastly quicker it a clock which would never have started than the supply of food and the existence going, or having started would soon of other life can allow, and the balance cease to go, if the hand of the watch of existence is only preserved by the maker were not constantly interfering wholesale wiiste of individuals in what with it? This is the question which the may be called the "struggle for life." In celebrated Darwinian theory attempts to this struggle, which goes on incessantly answer, of which I now proceed to give a and on the largest scale, the slightest short general outline. advantage must tell in the long run, and The varieties among domestic animals on the average, in selecting the few who are obvious to every one. The race-horse are to survive, and such slight advantages is a very different creature froin the must tend to accumulate from one generdray-horse; the short-horned ox from ation to another under the law of heredity. the Guernsey cow; the greyhound from The cumulative power of selection exerthe Skye terrier. How has this come to cised by man in the breeding of races is pass? Eviilently by man's intervention, therefore necessarily exercised in Nature causing long-continued selection in breed by the struggle for life, and in the course ing for certain objects. The English of time, by the cumulation of advantages race-horse is the product of mating originally slight, small and fluctuating animals distinguished for speed for some variations are hardened into large and fifteen or twenty generations. The grey permanent ones, and new species are hound is a similar dog-product by breed formed. ing for a longer period with the same Darwin illustrates this principle of the object; as the Skye terrier is of selection struggle for life" with a vast variety in order to get a dog which of instances, showing how the balance of follow a fox into a cairn of rocks and animal and vegetable life may be prefight him when he gets there. In all served or destroyed in the most unthese cases it is evident that the final expected manner. For instance, the result was not attained at once, but by fertilisation of red clover is effected by taking advantage of small accidental humble-beos, and depends on their variations and iccumulating them from number; the number of bees in a given one generation to another by the princi- district depends mainly on the number ple of herclity, which makes offspring of field-mice which destroy their combs reproduce the qualities of their parents. and nests; the number of mice depends The most precise and scientitic experi on the number of cats; and thus the ments on this power of integrating, or presence or absence of a carnivorous summing up, progressive series of animal may decide the question whether differentials, or minute differences, be a particular sort of flora shall prevail tween successive generations, are those over others or be extirpated. conducted by Darwin on pigeons. lle The countless profusion with which any has shown conclusively that all the races one species, unchecked by its natural focs, of domestic pigeons, of which there are may multiply in a given district, is two or three hundred, are derived from illustrated by the potato disease, which one common ancestor, the wild or blue in a few days invades whole countries rock pigeon, and that the pigeon-fancier and by the rabbit plague in Australia and can always obtain fresh varieties in a few New Zealand, where, in less than twenty generations by careful interbreeding. Of years, the descendants of a few imported the existing varieties many now differ pairs have rendered whole provinces widely from one another, both in size, usekass for sheep pasture, and stoats are apperrance, and even anatomical now being imported to l'estore the balance structure, so that if they were now of life. The tendency in species to prodiscovered for the first time in a fossil duce varieties which by selection may state or in & new country, they would become exaggerated and fixed, is illugcan in ·LIFB 86 same trated by the case of the Ancon herd of shown what an admirable machine the sheep. A ram lamb was born in Massa human hand is for the various purposes for chusetts in 1791, which had short crooked which it is used, and the inference was legs and a long back like a turnspit dog. drawn that it must have been created so Being unable to jump over fences like the by a designer who adapted means to ends ordinary sheep, it was thought to possess in much the same way as is done by a certain advantages to the farmer, and the human inventor. But more complete breed was established by artificial knowledge has dispelled this idea, and selection in pairing this ram with its shown that the design, if there be any, descendants who possessed the must be placed very much farther back, peculiarities. . The introduction of the and is in fact involved in the primitive Merino superseded the Ancon by giving germ from which all vertebrate life a tame sheep not given to jump fences, certainly, and probably all life, animal or with a better fleece, and so the breed was vegetable, has been slowly developed. not continued, but it is certain that it The human hand is in effect the last might have been established as it per stage of a development of the vertebrate manent variety differing from the type, or type of life in which a series of ordinary sheep as much as the turnspit jointed vertebræ form a backbone, which or Skye terrier differs from the ordinary protects a spinal cord containing the dog. The tendency of Nature to variation nervous centres, gives points of attachis apparent in the fact that of the many ment for the muscles, and forms an axis hundred millions of human beings living of support for the looser tissues. Certain on the earth, no two are precisely alike, of these vertebrae throw out bony spines and varieties often appear, as in giants or rays; at first, by a sort of simple and dwarfs, six-fingered or toed children, process of vegetable growth, which hairy and other families, which might formed the fins of fishes; then some of doubtless be fixed and perpetuated by these rays dropped off and others coalesced artificial or natural selection, until they into more complex forms, which made became strongly marked and permanent. the rudimentary limbs of reptiles ; and It is evident that if the theory of finally, the continued process of developdevelopment is true it excludes the old ment fashioned them into the more theory of design, or rather, it thrusts it perfect limbs of birds and mammals. In back in the organic, as it has been thrust this last stage a vast variety of combinback in the inorganic, worll, to the first ations was developed. Sometimes the atoms or origins which were made so bones of the extremities spread out, so as perfect as to carry within them all to form long fingers supporting the subsequent phenomena by necessary feathered wings of birds and the unemevolution. Design and development lead brancous wings of bats; sometimes they to the same result, that of producing coalesced into the solid limbs supporting organs adapted for the work they have the bodies of large animals, as in the to do, but they lead to it in totally case of the horse ; and finally, at the end different ways. Development works from of the series, they formed that marvellous the less to the more perfect, and from instrument,' the hand, as it appears in the simpler to the more complicated, by the allied genera of monkeys, apes, and incessant changes, small in themselves, but constantly accumulating in the re Any theory of secondary design and quired direction. Design supposes that special miraculous creation must eviorganisms were created specially on a dently account for all the intermediate predetermined plan, very much as the forms as well as for the final result. We sewing-machine or self-binding reaper must suppose not one but many thouswere constructed by their inventors. ands of special creations, at a vast Until quite recently all adaptations of variety of places and over a vast extent means to ends were considered as evidences of time; we must take into acount not of design. A series of treatises, for which the successes only, but the failures, where prizes were left by a late Duke of Bridge organs appear in & rudimentary form water, was published some thirty years which are perfectly useless, or in some ago, to illustrate this theme. Among these cases even injurious, to the creature in one by Sir Charles Bell on the Hand at which they are found. For instance, in tructed a good deal of attention. It was the case of the so-called wingless hirden nan.

·38 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT soon like the dodo of the Mauritius, and the within old types, and new and complex apteryx of New Zealand, which were found types from old and simple ones. in oceanic islands, evolution accounts The theory is up to & certain point readily for the atrophy or want of develop- undoubtedly true, and beyond that point ment of organs which were not wanted in the highest degree probable, but scienwhere the birds had no natural enemies tific caution obliges us to add that it is and found their food on the ground ; but still to a considerable extent a "theory," why should they have been created with and not a "law." That is, it is not like rudimentary wings, useless while they the law of gravity, a demonstrated cerremained isolated, and insufficient to tainty throughout the whole universe, prevent their exteriination as but a provisional law which accounts for as man, or any other natural enemy, a great number of undoubted facts, and reached the islands where they had lived supplies a framework into which all other secure ? similar facts, as at present ascertained, If we are apt to adopt the theory of appear to fit with a probability not apdesign and specinl creation, we must be proached by any other theory, and which prepared to take Burns's poetical fancy as is enhanced by every fresh discovery a scientific truth, and believe that Nature made, and by the analogy of what we had to try its "prentice hand," and grope know to be the laws which regulate the its way through repeated trials and fail. whole inorganic world. ures from the less to the more perfect. To enable us to talk of the “ Darwinian Again, the theory of special creation law," and not of the "Darwinian theory," must inccount not only for the higher we require two demonstrations : organs and forms of life, but for the lower 1. That living matter really can origiforms also. Are the bacteria, amebe, nate from inorganic matter. and other forms of life which the micro 2. That new species really can be formed scope shows in a drop of water all in from previously existing species. stances of a miraculous creation? And As regards the first, we have seen that still more hard to believe, is this the the efforts of science have hitherto failed origin of the whole parasitic world of life to produce an instance of spontaneous which is attirched to and infests each its generation, and all we can say is that it own peculiar form of higher life? Is the is probable that such instances have ochuman tape-worm a product of design, or curred in earlier ages of our plarzt, under that wonderful parasite the trichina, conditions of light, heat, chemical action, which oscillates between man and the pig, and electricity, different from anything being capable of being born only in the we can now reproduce in our laboratories. muscles of the one, and of living only in This, however, falls short of demonstrathe intestines of the other? tion and for the present we must be con- These are the sort of difficulties which tent to leave the origin of life as one of have led the scientific world, I may say the mysteries not yet brought within the universally, to abandon the idea of separ domain of law. ate special creations, and to substitute As regards the second point, we are for it that which has been proved to be farther advanced towards the possibility true of the whole inorganic world of of proof. But here also we are met by stars, suns, planets, and all forms of two difficulties. If we appeal to historical matter; the idea of an original creation evidence, we are met by the fact that a (whatever creation may mean and behind much greater time than is embraced by which we cannot go) of ultimate atoms or any historical record is aimost necessarily germs, so perfect that they carried within required for the dying out of any old thein all the phenomena of the universe species and introduction of any new one, by a necessary process of evolution. by natural selection. And if we appeal This is the idea to which the Darwinian to fossil remains we are met by the imtheory leads up, by showing natural perfection of the geological record. As causes in operation which must inevit to this, it must be remembered that only ably tend to originate and to accumulate a veçy small portion of the earth's surface slight varieties, until they become large has been explored, and of this a very in amount and permanent, thus develop small portion consists of ancient land ing new races within old species, new surfaces or fresh water formations, where species within old families, new families alone we can expect to meet with traces ·LIFE 37 of the higher forms of animal life. And tions, and every extension of our knoweven these have been so in perfectly ex ledge, both of the existing animal, vege- . plored, that where we now meet with table, and microscopic worlds, and of thousands and tens of thousands of un those of past geological periods, multidoubted human remains in the shape of plies instances of intermediate forms, rudely-fashioned stone tools and weapons differing from one another far less than lying almost under our feet, it is only do many of the individual varieties of within the last thirty years that their recognised species. In the case of sponges, existence haseven been suspected. Cuvier, for instance, the latest conclusion of the greatest authority of the last gencra scientific research is this: that if you tion, laid it down as an incontrovertible rely on minute distinctions as constifact that neither men nor monkeys had tuting distinct species, there are at least existed in the fossil state, or in anything 300 species of one family of sponges, more ancient than the most superficial while if you disregard slight differences, and recent deposits. We have now at least which graduate into one another, and are twenty specimens of fossil monkeys, from found partly in one and partly in another one locality alone of the Miocene period, variety, you must designate them all as that of Pikermi, near Athens, and many forming only one species. Even in higher thousands of human remains, contem grades, as species are multipled, it beporary with extinct animals of the Qua comes more and more difficult to say ternary period, if not earlier. We must be where one ends and the other begins. content, therefore, with approximate Take the familiar instance of the grouse solutions pointing up to but not abso and ptarmigan. The red grouse is believer lutely deinonstrating the truth. to be peculiar to the British Islands, What is a species ? Speaking generally while the ptarmigan is a very widely it is an assernblage of individuals who spread inhabitant of Arctic regions and maintain a separate family type by high mountains. Which is more probable breeding freely among themselves, and that the grouse was specially crcatedrefusing to breed with other species. in the British Islands, apparently for There can be no doubt that this repre the final cause of bringing sessions of sents what, at the first view and for a Parliament to wind-up business in August, limited range of time, is in accordance or that, as the rigour of the Glacial period with actual facts. The animal and vege abated, and heather began to grow, certable worlds are practically mapped-out tain ptarmigan by degrees modified their into distinct species, and do not present habits and took to feeding on heather the mass of confusion which would result tops instead of lichens, and by so doing from indiscriminate cross-breeding. It gradually became larger birds and asis clear also that this state of things has sumed the colour best adapted for prolasted for a considerable time, for the tection in their new habitation? In point paintings on Egyptian tornbs and monu of fact, grouse showing traces of this ments carry us back more than 4,000 descent in smaller size and much whiter years, and show us the most strongly plumage are still to be met with. It would marked varieties of the human race, be easy to multiply instances, but this such as the Semitic, the Egyptian, and consideration seems conclusive. the Negro, existing just as they do at If we reject the Darwinian theory and the present day. They show us also such adopt that of independent species deextreme varieties of the dog species is scended from a specially created ancestor the greyhound and the turnspit, then in or pair of ancestors, we are driven by existence; and the skeletons of animals each discovery of intermediate or slightly such as the ox, cat, and crocodile, which modified forms, into the assumption of have been preserved as mummies, show more and more special acts of creation, no appreciable ditference from those of until tlte number breaks down under its their modern descendants. own weight, and belief becomes impos- When wo come to look closely, however, sible. into the matter, our faith in this absolute For instance, in the Madeira Islands rule of the entire independence of species alone, 134 species of air-breathing landis groatly modified. In the lower grades snails have been discovered by naturalists, of life we see everywhere species shading of which twenty-one only are found in off into one another by insensible grada Africa or Europe, and 113 are peculiar to ·MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT Il a and ass. this small group of islands, where they tic English cow than it does any of its proare mostly confined to narrow districts genitors. It is totally unlike the bison, and single valleys. Are we to suppose both in appearance and disposition, and that each of these 113 species was sepa- except in having a projecting, ridge rately created ? Is it not almost certain over the withers, it might be mistaken that they are the modified descendants for a coarse, bony, common cow. of the twenty-one species which had hybrid bull had been born of the same found their way there in a former geolo- type, and mated with this hybrid cow, gical period, when Madeira was united there is little doubt that a new race to Africa and Spain ? might have been established, extremely There remains only the argument from ditferent from its ancestors. the fertility of species inter se and their In fact, nearly all the domesticated refusal to breed with other species. animals have the essential characters of This also, when closely examined, ap new races. We cannot point to wild propears to be a prima facie deduction, rather genitors existing in any part of the world than an absolute law. Different species from which they are descended, and when do, in fact, often breed together, as is they run wild they do not revert to any seen in the familiar instance of the horse common ancestral form. It is true that in this case the In the vegetable world instances of mule is sterile and no new race is estab fertile hybrids are still more abundant, lished. But this rule is not universal, and the introduction and establishment and quite recently one new hybrid race, of new varieties is a inatter of very-day that of the leporine, or hare-rabbit, has occurrence. been created, which is perfectly fertile. Now, whatever artificial selection can The progeny of dog and wolf has also do in a short time, natural selection can been proved to be perfectly fertile during certainly do in a longer time, and noththe four generations for which the expe ing short of absolute proof of the imriment was continued. In the case of possibility of species coming into excultivated plants and domestic animals, istence by natural laws should induce us there can be little doubt that new races, to fall back on the supernatural theory, which breed true and are perfectly fertile, with all its enormous difficulties of an have been created within recent times innumerable multitude of special from distinct wild species. The Esqui creations, most of them obvioasly iminaux dog is so like the Arctic wolf perfect and tentative--or rather, useless that there can be little doubt he is either and senseless on any supposition except a direct descendant, or that both are that of a necessary and progressive descendants from a common stock. The evolution. In fact, if it were not for its sanne is true of the jackal and some bearing on the nature and origin of inan, breeds of dogs in the East and Africa, few would be found to maintain the and other races of dogs are closely akin theory of miraculous creations, or to to foxes. But all dogs breed freely to doubt that the world of life is regulated gether, and can with ditficulty be mated by fixed laws as well as the world of with the wild species which they so matter. But whatever touches closely resemble. The modern Swiss touches us closely, and brings into play a cattle are pronounced by Rutimeyer to host of cherished aspirations and beliefs, show undoubted marks of descent from which are too powerful to be displaced three distinct species of fossil oxen, the readily by calm, scientific reasoning. Bos primigenius, Bos longifrons and Bos Shall man, who, we are told, was created frontosus. in God's image and only a little lower There is now in the Zoological Gardens, than the angels, be degraded into rein Regent's Park, a hybrid cow, whose lationship with the brutes, and shown to sire was an American bison and its be only the last development of an mother a hybrid between a zebu and a animal typo which, in the case of apes gayal. This animal is perfectly fertile, and nuonkeys, approaches singularly near and has bred again to the bison; but to him in physical structure? Are the what is singular is, that this hybrid saints and heroes whom we revere, resembles much more an ordinary domes and the beautiful women whom admire, descended, not from an all- 1 1888. glorious Adam and all-lovely Kve, as man we ·ANTIQUITY.OF MAN 30 8s portrayed in Milton's "Paradise Lost," but from Paleolithic savages, more rude and bestial than the lowest tribe of CHAPTER V Bushmen or Australiaps? Is the account of man's creation and fall in the ANTIQUITY OF MAN Hebrew Scriptures as pure a myth as that of Noah's ark, or of Deucalion and Belief in Man's Recent Origin-Boucher de Pyrrha ? Perthes' Discoveries-Confirmed by Prest- The only answer to these questions is wich-Nature of Implements-Celts, Scra. that truth is truth, and fact is fact, and pers, and Flakes-Human Remains in River Drifts—Great Antiquity-Implerhents from that it is always better to act and to Drift at Bournemouth-Bone Caves-Kent's believe in conformity with truth and Cavern-Victoria, Creswell, and other fact, than to indulge in illusions. There Caves-Caves of France and Belgiumare many things in Nature which jar on Ages of Cave Bear, Mammoth, and Reinour feelings and seem harsh and dis dcer-Artistic Race-Drawings of Mamagreeable, but yet are hard facts, which moth, etc.-Human Types-Neanderthalwe have to recognise and make the best -Attempts to fix Dates-History-Spy, of. Childhood does not pass into man- Trinil — Bronze Age - Neolithic - Danish hood without exchanging much that is Kitchen-middens-Swiss Loke-Dwellingsinnocent and attractive for much that is Glacial Period-Traces of Ice-Causes of stern and prosaic. Death, with its pro- Glaciers--Croll's Theory-Gulf Stream- Dates of Glacial Period-Rise and Subdigal waste of immature life, its sudden extinction of mature life in the pleni. mergence of Land-Tertiary Man-Eoceno Period-Miocene--Evidence for Pliocene tude of its powers, its heart-rending And Miocene Man-Conclusions to separations from loved objects, is a most Antiquity. disagreeable fact. But it would not improve matters to keep grown-up lads in GREAT as the effect has been of the nurseries for fear of their meeting with wonderfuldiscoveries of modern science of accidents, or of becoming hardened by which I have attempted to give a general contact with the world. Progress, not view in the preceding chapters, there happiness, is the law of the world ; and to reinains one which has had the greatest improve himself and others by constant effect of all in changing the whole curstruggles upwards is the true destiny of rent of modern thought, viz.., the discovery of the enormous antiquity of man In working out this destiny the fear upon earth, and his slow progress upless recognition of truth is essential. wards from the rudest savagery to in- Facts are the spokes of the ladder by telligence, morality, and civilisation. It which we climb from earth to heaven, is needless to point out in what flagrant and any individual, nation, or religion, and direct opposition this stands to the which, from laziness or prejudice, re theory that man is of recent miraculous fuses to recognise fresh facts, has ceased creation, and that he was originally ento climb and will end by falling asleep dowed with a glorious nature and high and dropping to a lower level. faculties, which were partially forfeited “Prove everything, hold fast that by an act of disobedience. It is imwhich is true," is the maxim which has portant, therefore, to understand clearly raised mankind from savagery to civi the evidence upon which rests a lisation, and which we must be prepared clusion so startling and unexpected as to act upon at all hazards and at all that which traces the origin of man back sacrifices, if we wish to retlin that civi into the remote periods of geological Jisation unimpaired and to extend it time. tiurther, It had been long known that a stone period preceded the use of metals. Flint arrow-heads, stone axes, knives, and chisels, rude pottery, and other human remains lie scattered almost everywhere, on or near the existing surface, and are found in the sepulchral mounds and monuments which abound in all countries until they are destroyed by the procon- ·MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT 80 comor ( name gress of agriculture. These are certainly for fuel, and afford many remains of the ancient, for their origin was Gallo-Roman and pre-Roman or Celtio pletely forgotten that the stone hatchets period. Higher up, on the slopes of the or celts (from the Latin celtis, or chisel) low hills which bound the wide valley, were universally believed to be thunder are numerous beds of gravel, sand, and bolts which had fallen froin heaven. brick-earth, which are also extensively But there was no proof that they were worked for road and building materials. very anciont, they were always found at In these pits remains of the mammoth, near the present surface, and if rhinoceros, and other extinct animals are animal remains were associated with frequently found, and the workmen had them, they were those of the dog, ox, noticed occasionally. certain curiously. sheep, red deer, and other wild' and shaped flints, to which they gave the domestic species now found in the same of langues du chat," or cats' district. Historical record was not sup tongues. Some of these were taken to posed to extend beyond the 4,000 or 5,000 Monsieur Boucher de Perthes as curiyears assigned to it by Bible chronology, osities for his museum, and he at once and it was thought that this might be recognised them as showing marks of sutticient to account for all the changes human workmanship. This put him on which had occurred since man first be the track, and in the year 1841 he him. came an inhabitant of the earth. Above self discovered, in situ, in a seam of sand all, the negative evidence was relied containing remains of the mammoth, a on, that geologists had explored far and flint rudely, but unmistakably fashioned wido, and although they had found fossil by human hands into & cutting instruremains which enabled them to restore ment. During the next few years & the characteristic fauna of so many dif- large quantity of gravel was removed ferent formations, they had found no trace to form the Champ de Mars at Abbeville, of man or his works anywhere below the and many of these celts or hatchets present surface. This seemed so con were found. In 1847, M. Boucher de clusive that Cuvier, the greatest Perthes published his “ Antiquités authority of the day, pronounced an em Celtiques et Antédiluviennes," giving an phatic verdict that man had not existed account of these discoveries, but no one contemporaneously with any of the ex would listen to him. The united tinct animals, and probably not for more authority of theologians and geologists than 5,000 or 6,000 years. Here, then, opposed an infallible veto on the reappeared to be an edifice based on ception of such ideas, and it must be scientific fact, in which geologists and admitted that M. Boucher de Perthes theologians could dwell together com himself did his best to discredit his own fortably, and the weight of their united discoverios by associating them with authority was sufficient to silence all visionary speculations about successive objections, and ignore or explain away deluges and creations of pre-Adamite the instances which occasionally cropped men. At length Dr. Falconer, the wellup, of human remains found in situations knowo palacontologist, who had brought implying greater antiquity. to light so many wonderful fossil remains Suddenly, I may almost say in a single from the Scwalik hills in India, happened day, this edifice collapsed like a house of to be passing through Abbeville and cards, and the fact became apparent that visited M. Boucher de Perthes' collection. the duration of human life on the earth He was so much struck by what he saw must be measured by periods of tens, if that on arriving in London he spoke to not of hundreds of thousands of years. Mr. Prestwich, the first living authority It happened thus: A retired French on the Tertiary and Quaternary strata, physician, Monsieur Boucher de Herthes, and Mr. (now Sir John) Evans, whose residing at Abbeville, in the valley of authority was equally great on everythe Somme, had a hobby for antiquar- thing relating to the stono implements ianism as decided as that of Monkbarns found in such numbers in the more bimselt. Abbovillo afforded him recent or Neolithic perjod. He urged capital collecting-ground for the indul them to go to Abbeville and examine for gence of his tastes, as the sluggish themselves whether there was anything Somme flows through a series of peat in these alleged discoveries. They did mosses, which are extensively worked 80, and the result was that on their .. a ·ANTIQUITY OF MAN 41 return to England Mr. Prestwich read a have been found from Western Europe to paper to the Royal Society on the 19th Tibet; in Africa, and Central Australia May, 1859, which conclusively and for in fact wherever they have been looked ever established the fact that flint imple for, except in northern countries which ments of unmistakable human workman were buried under ice during the Glacial ship had been found, associated with the period. The earliest known authentic witremains of extinct species, in beds of the ness to man's presence in Britain are some Quaternary period deposited at a time rudely-worked fints which were found, when the Somme ran at a level more mingled with bones of huge extinct anithan 100 feet higher than at present, and mals, at a great depth in brick-earth at 2 FLINT HACAR, Furx IACUX From Moulin Quignon, Abbeville. From St. Acheul, Valley of tho Somme. (Hall the actual size.) (Ilalf tho actual sizo.) (From Lubbock's " Prehistoric Times.") was only beginning to excavate its valley. The spell once broken, evidence poured in from all quarters, and although twontyfive years I only have elapsed since Mr. l'restwich's paper was read, the number of stone and other implements worked by man, deposited in museums, is already counted by tens of thousands, and they Hoxne, in Suffolk. Some idea of the immense number of these rude implements may be formed from the fact that the valley system of one small river, the Little Duse, which rises near Thetford and tlows into the Wash after a course of twenty-five miles, has within little more than ten years yielded about 7,000 specimons. They have been found in great abundance also in the valley gravels of the | Written in 1884 ·42 MODERN SCIENOE AND MODERN THOUGHT Thames, Ouse, Wiltshire Avon, and in as the Quaternary (as distinguished from fact in all the river-gravels and brick recent or existing tauna) represented by earths of the south and south-east of the mammoth or woolly-haired elophant, England ; and in those of the Somme, the thick-nosed rhinoceros, and other wellknown types of extinct animals. The general character of these implements is very rude, implying a social condition at least as low as that of the Australian savages of the present day. They consist mainly of the fake; the chopper, or pebble roughly chipped to an edge on one side ; the scraper, used probably for preparing skins; pointed flints used for boring; and by far the most abundant and characteristic of all, the hûche or celt, a sharp or oval implement, roughly chipped from flint or, in its absenco, from any of the hard stones of the district, such as chert or quartzite, and intended to be held in the hand and used without any haft or handle. These hâches are evidently the first rude type of human tools from which the later forms of the axe, adze, chisel, wedge, etc., have been derived by a very slow and lengthened process of evolution. They ditler, however, in many essential respects, from the more perfect stone celts of later periods and of modern savages. The chipping is very rude, they are never ground or polished, the pointed end is that intended for use, the butt end being left blunt, showing thit the heiche wils not hafted but held in the hand; while the converse is al- FLINT Пісні, ways the case with the finely-chipped or (Gall the actual sizc.) polished stone celts From Lubbock': "Prehistoric Tincs.") and hatchets of the Neolithic period, Oise, Seino, Loire, and all the principal which, in its later river systems of France; and only in less stages, are to all innumbers, probably because they have tents and purposes been less looked-for, in similar situations similar to modernimover an area extending from Central and plements, only made Southern Europe to the Far East. It is of stone instead of & reinarkable fact about these river-drift metal. But tlieso implements that they are all nearly of the Paleolithic haches are same type and found under similar cir only one step in ad- Neolithic. cumstances, that is to say, in the gravels, vance of the rude (Half tho actual size.) sands, brick-carthy, and fine silt or loess natural storie which (From Lubbock's "Prehistoric Timos.") deposited by rivers which have either an intelligent orang ceased to run, or which ran at levels or chimpanzee night higher than their present ones and were pick up to crack a cocoa-hut with, or to only beginning to excavate their present grub up a root from the earth, or an valleys. Also they are always found in insect from & rotten tree. ússociation with remains of what is known At the same time there is not thc ro- Froni Hoxne. - POLISHED STONE AXE.

·ANTIQUITY OF MAN 43 motest doubt as to their being the work river drifts, since they have been formed of human hands. When placed side by under conditions where the preservation side with the rudest forms of stone hat of such remains would be very unlikely. chets actually used by the Australian and In fact, as Sir John Lubbock (now Lord other savages, it is difficult to detect any Avebury) points out, the bones found in difference. If placed in an ascending the river-gravels are almost invariably series, from the oldest and rudest, to the those of animals larger than man, such finely-finished axes and arrow-heads of as the mammoth and rhinoceros. Still a the period immediately preceding the use few human bones have been found, suffiof metal, the progress may be clearly traced cient to show that these river-drift men by insensible gradations. The blows given were probably a dolichocephalic or long to bring the block to the desired shape by and narrow-headed race, with prominent intentional chipping have left distinct jaws, massive bones, and great muscular marks; and archäologists have succeeded, strength, but still, although rude and with a little practice, in fashioning sim savage, of an essentially human type, ilar implements from modern flints In and going a very little way towards bridg. FLINT ADZE, MODERN STONE ADZE, Froin Danish Kitchen-middens. New Zealand. (From Lubbock's " Prehistoric Times.") the ape. fact, forgeries have been made by work. ing over the gap between the savage and men in localities where collectors were eager and credulous, though fortunately A more complete view, however, of the such forgeries are easily distinguished conditions of human life at these remote from genuine antiquities by the different periods is afforded by the evidence given appearance of the old and recent frac by caves, where naturally the remains of tures, and other signs which make it man are more abundant and much better almost impossible to deceive an expe preserved. Before entering, however, on rienced eye. The conclusion, therefore, the examination of this class of evidence, of one of our best archäologists may be it may be well to give an instance which safely accepted, that it is as impossible may help to familiarise the imagination to doubt that these rude stone flakes and with the vast periods of time which must hatchets are works of human art, as it have elapsed since Palæolithic man left would be if we had found clasp-knives these rude implements within reach of and carpenters' adzes. river floods. The remains of human skeletons are, Among the gravols in which Palæolithic 48' might be expected, very rare in these haches have been found, are some which

·.)
PAL.LOLITUIC.
Mammoth Period.
PALCOLITHIC.
Mammoth Period.
PALEOLITHIC.
Mammoth Poriod.
PALAOLITTIO.
Roindoor Poriod.
LARLY NEOLITHIC.
LATU NEOLITHIA
Frowe Lubbook's "Prehlatorio Timos.")

·ANTIQUITY. OF MAN 45 cap the cliff at Bournemouth at a height to lower levels, where it comes out in of about 130 feet above the sea. This springs of hard water charged with carb- 'gravel can be traced in a gradual fall onate of lime from the rock which it has from west to east, along the Hampshire dissolved. It has been calculated that coast and the shores of the Solent to the average rainfall on a square mile of beyond Spithead, and was evidently de chalk thus carries away about 140 tons posited by a river which carried the of solid matter in a year. In this way drainage of the Dorsetshire and Hamp- underground channels are formed, some shire downs into the sea to the eastward, of which become large enough to admit and of which the present Avon, Test, and of streams flowing through them, and Itchen were tributaries. But for such a even rivers, as is seen in the limestone river to run in such a course the whole of district of Carinthia, where considerable Poole and Christchurch bays must have rivers are swallowed up and run for miles been dry land, and the range of chalk bencath the surfiice. In this way caverns downs now broken through at the Needles are formed, or sometimes a series of must have been continuous. To borrow caverns, which represent the pools of the the words of Evans in his “Ancient Stone rivers which formerly flowed through Implements,” “Who, standing on the them. Accumulations of whatever may edge of the lofty cliff at Bournemouth, have been brought down by the stream and gazing over the wide expanse of were forined at the bottoin of these pools, waters between the present shore and a and when, owing to changos in level or line connecting the Needles on the one denudation of the gathering grounds, the hand and the Ballard Down Foreland on rivers ceased to flow in the old channel, the other, can fully comprehend how the pools became dry and were converted immensely remote was the epoch when into caves, in which wild beasts and man what is now that vast bay was high and found shelter and left their remains. The dry land, and a long range of chalk débris thus formed accumulated with a downs, 600 feet above the sea, bounded mixture of blocks which fell from the the horizon on the south! And yet this roof, and of red loamy earth consisting must have been the sight that met the of the residue of the limestone rock ineyes of those primeval men who fre soluble in water, and of dust and mud quented the banks of that ancient river brought in by winds and floods, and which buried their handiworks in gravels occasionally interstratified by beds of that now cap the cliffs, and of the course stalagmite, composed of thin films of of which so strange but indubitable a crystalline carbonate of lime, deposited memorial subsists in what has now be drop by drop by drippings through the come the Solent Sea." rock forming the roof of the cave. These Any attempt to assign a more precise drippings form what are called stalactites, date than the vague one of inmense which hang like pendent icicles from the antiquity to these early traces of primeval roof of caves, and as the drip falls from man, had better be postponed until we these it forms a corresponding deposit, have axamined the niore detailed and known as stalagmite, on the floor below. extensive body of evidence which has The forniation of this deposit is necesbeen afforded by the exploration of caves, sarily extremely slow, and it only goes to which the great discovery at Abbeville on when the drops of water charged with at once gave an immense impulse, and & minute excess of carbonate of lime which has since been prosecuted in come in contact with the air; so that England, France, Belgium, and Germany, whenever the floor of the cave was under with the greatest ardour and success. water no stalagmite could be formed. The caves in which fossil remains aro The alternations, therefore, of deposits of found occur principally in limestone stalagmite represent alternations of long districts. They are due to the property periods during which the cavo which water possesses, when charged generally dry or generally flooded. with a sinall quantity of carbonic acid, of During the dry periods, when the cavo dissolving lime. Rain falling on the happened to be inhabited, the treadings earth's surface takes up carbonic acid on the floor would prevent the accumulafrom contact with vegetable matter, and tion of an unbroken deposit of pure portion of it finds its way through stalagmite, and the crystalline matter cracks and crevices in the subjacent rock would be employed in forming a solid was ·MODERN SCIENOE AND MODERN THOUGHT cement of the various débris into what is thickness, but in places five to six known as & breccia. feet thick. Another class of caves, or rock-shelters, In the black earth above the stalagmite has been formed along the sides of were found a number of relics of the valleys bounded by cliffs, where the Neolithic or polished stone period, with stratification is horizontal or nearly so . a few articles of bronze and pottery, but the different beds vary much in some of which appear to be of a date as hardness and permeability to water. late as that of the Roman occupation of The softer strata weather away more Britain. Associated with these are bones rapidly than the others, and thus form of ox, sheep, goat, pig, and other ordinary shallow caves or deep recesses in the face forms of existing species, and there is an of the cliffs, with a floor of hard rock entire absence of any older fauna, or of below and a roof of hard rock above, any of the ruder forms of Palæolithic which afford dry and commodious shelters implements. When we get below the for any sort of animal, including man. stalagmite into the underlying cave- In other respects they resemble the first earth, the case is entirely reversed. Not class of caves in having their contents il single specimen of polished or finelycemented into a breccia by the dripping wrought stone, or of pottery, is to be of water charged with carbonate of lime found ; a vast number of celts or hâches, from the roof, and, if the cave happened scrapers, knives, hammer stones, and to be deserted for a long period, this other stone implements, are met with, deposit would in the same way form a which are all of the rude Palæolithic type bed of stalagmite and seal up securely found in river drifts, with a few bone everything below it. In some cases, also, implements such as harpoon-heads, a pin, the roof would fall in, and thus preserve an awl, and a needle, like those frequently everything previously existing in the met with in the caves of France and cave for the investigation of future Belgium. Associated with these are a geologists. vast number of bones and teeth, all of With these general remarks readers which belong to the old Quaternary fauna, will be able to understand the evidence of which many species have become atforded by the remains of man found in extinct and others have migrated to I will begin by taking as a distant latitudes. typical case that of Kent's Cavern, near The following is a list of tho mam- Torquay, because it is one of the earliest malian remains which have been found and best known, and all the facts conin this cave-earth below the stalagmite: cerning it have been verified by explora- ABUNDANT. tions carefully conducted by a committee appointed by the British Association in The Cave Lion, a large extinct specics of 1864, which comprised the names of the lion. most eminent authorities in geology and Cave Hyæna, a large extinct species of palæontology, including those of Sir hyæna. Charles Lyell, Sir John Lubbock, Mr. Cave Bear, a large extinct species of bear. Evans, Mr. Boyd Dawkins, Mr. Pengelly, Grizzly Bear. Mammoth (7)ephao primiyeniu). and others. Rhinoceros (Tichorinus), woolly or thick. The cave is about a mile east from nosed extinct species. Torquay harbour, and runs into a hill of Horse. Devonian limestone in a winding course, Bison. expanding into large chainbers connected Irish Elk. by narrow passages. The following is a Red Deer, series of deposits in descending order in Reindeer. the large chainber near the entrance: SOARCE. 1. Large blocks of limestone which Wolf. Fox. have fallen from the roof. Glutton. 2. A layer of black, muddy mould, Brown Bear. three inches to twelve inches thick. Urus. 3. Stalagmite one foot to three feet Hare. thick. Lagomys, tailless Arctic haro. 4. Rod cave-earth with angalar frag. Water Vole. ments of limestone of variable Field Volo, caverns. a ·ANTIQUITY OF MAN Bank Vole. Beaver. And one specimen of the Machairodus, or Great Sabre-toothed Tiger, which is one of the characteristic species of the upper Miocene and Pliocene formations. These constitute a fauna which is characteristic of the Pleistocene, Quaternary, or Paläolithic period, and essentially different from that of the prehistoric or Neolithic period, which is practically the same as thať now existing, Wherever remains of the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and cave bear are found, Palæolithic implements may be expected, and conversely. In fact Palæolithic man is as essentially part of the characteristic fauna of the Quaternary, period, as the Palæotherium is of the Eocene, or the Deinotherium and Hipparion of the Miocene. A large number of other caves have been explored in England, notably the Victoria Cave near Settle, in Yorkshire, the Cresswell Caves in Derbyshire, the Gower Caves in South Wales, the Brixham Cave in Devonshire, the Woking Cave in Sorocrsetshire, and King Arthur's Cave in Herefordshire, and the results have been everywhere practically the same as those at Kent's Cavern. The same class of implements have been found and the same fauna, with the occasional addition of a few species, among which the hippopotamus and Elophus antiquus are the inost remarkable. So far as the river drifts and British caves are concerned, all that we could say of the Paläolithic period is that it is of vast antiquity, and must have lasted for an immense time, as it was in force for the whole time requisite for rivers like the Somme or Avon, which drain small areas, to cut down their present valleys, often two or three miles wide, from the level of their upper gravels, which are in many places 100 to 150 feet above the level of the highest floods of the present rivers. But the caves of France and Belgium supply us with more eviilence, and enable us to trace the history of long periods of Paleolithic time, and study, in detail the succession of changes that have occurred, and the hubits, arts, and industries of the various tribes of primitive nen who occupied these caves and rock-shelters at these remote periods. In fact, it may be vaid with truth that we know more a about the men who chased the mammoth and reindeer in the South of France perhaps 50,000 years ago, than we do about those who lived there immediately before the classical era, or less than 5,000 years ago, In certain provinces of France and Belgium it happens fortunately that there are extensive districts of limestone, in which caverns and rock-shelters are extremely abundant and full of Palæolithic remains in an excellent state of preservation. The abundance of such caves may be estimated from the fact that the cliffs, bounding one small river, the Vozère, in the department of Dordogne in the South of France, contain in a distance of eight or ten miles no fewer than nine different stations, each of which has given a vast variety of romains embedded in the breccias and cave-earths of their respective toors ; and the small river Lesse in Belgium has been scarcely less prolific. Of the abundance of the huinan and animal remains found in such caverns it may be sufficient to say that one alone, that of Chaleux in the valley of the Lesse, is computed by Dumont to have yielded not less than 40,000 distinct objects. The great abundance of remains thus collected, both of human bones and implements, and of animals contemporaneous with them, have made it possible to classify and arrange, in relative order of time, a good many of the subdivisions of the Palæolithic period. This has been done partly by the order of superposition and partly by the greater or less rudeness of the implements of stone and bone, and by the greater or less abundance of those animals of the Quaternary fauna which appeared first and disappeared soonest. The result has been to show that the period when vast herds of reindeer roamed over the plains of Southern France up to the Pyrenees was not the earliest, but was preceded by a long period when the reindeer wiis scarce, and the remains of the maminoth, cave bear, and cave hyæna were more abundant than in the following ages. The implonents of this period are of the earlier river-drift type and extremely rude, and there is an almost entire absence of instruments of bone. Gradually as we pass upwards, the more Southern forms of elephant, rhinoceros, antelopes, and great carnivora disappear, and the mammoth and cave beer ·48 MODERN SOIENOE AND MODERN THOUGHT become scarcer, while the reindeer be be added rock-carvings in Denmark, and comes more and more abundant until at figures on limestone cliffs in the Maritime length it furnishes the chief source of Alps, while if, as some authorities, among food, and its horns one of the principal them Arthur Evans and Sergi, think, materials for the manufacture of innple- they point to a primitivo script, still, ments. Concurrently with this change more important are the characters we find a progressive improvement in the painted in peroxide of iron on pebbles arts of life, as shown by stone imple- discovered by Piette in the Mas-d'Azil ments more carefully chipped into a cave, in the South East of France. greater variety of forms, and arrow and We do not, however, depend on these lance-heads, barbed harpoons, awls, and drawings for evidence of the sort of men needles for sewing skins, made chiefly who inhabited these caves in Palæolithic from the antlers of the reindeer. days. A large number of skulls and At length we arrive at one of the most complete skeletons have been found in interesting facts disclosed by these re different caves, some of which have searches, that during one of the later or served as sepulchral vaults for families reindeer periods of the Palæolithic era, and tribes, while in others individuals many of the caves in the South of France, have been crushed by falls of rock, or and also in Switzerland and Southern otherwise interred, and in a few cases Germany, were occupied by a race who, skulls and bones have been found at like the Esquimaux of the present day, great depths in river drifts, and in the had a strong artistic tendency, and were loess, or fine glacial mud which fills up constantly drawing with the point of a the valley of the Rhine and other areas flint on stone or bone, or modelling with over which the great Swiss glaciers when flint knives from horns and bones, melting poured their turbid streams. sketches of the animals they hunted, From among the more important disscenes of the chase, or other objects coveries of remains of man himself, there which struck their fancy. These are ex may be chosen as typical: 1. those from ceedingly well done, so that there is no the Spy cavern ; 2. frou the Neanderthal difficulty in recognising the animals in cnvern ; and 3. from the pliocene deposits tended to be represented, among which of Trinil, Java. are the marnmoth, cave bear, reindeer, 1. The Betche aux Roches cavern at wild horse, and wild ox. The sketch of Spy, Belgiuın, yielded two nearly comthe mammoth which is engrieved on a plete skeletons of a male and female, picce of ivory, from the cave of La associated with a large nuinber of im- Madeleine in the valley of the Vezére, is plements of a character somewhat above particularly interesting, as it corresponds those of the Drift. The skulls had exactly with the mammoth whose body enormous superciliary (eyebrows) ridges, was found entire in frozen mud on the receding foreheads, massive jaws, and banks of a river in Siberia, and it sets at other apelike features to which the rest all possible question of man having general character of the rest of the been really conteynporary with this ex skeletons approximated. These remains tinct animal in the South of France. were discovered in 1886. The drawings and carvings of other 2. Thirty years earlier there was found animals, especially of the reindeer, are in a Quaternary deposit in the Feldhofen often extreinely spirited, and one cave of the Neander Valley, Rhenish pecially of a reindeer engraved on a bit Prussia, & calvaria, or brain-cap, inof bone from a cave at Thayngen, near dicating similar features jo those of the Schaffhausen in Switzerland, would do Spy skulls, and pronounced by Huxley credit to any modern animal painter. A as the most apelike" yet discovered to very few human figures are found among that timo, although not approaching these primetal drawings, but strengely, the assumed special features of the while the animisls are so well drawn, "missing link." those of men are very inferior and 3. More remarkable than either of almost infantine in execution. They are these specimens are the brain-cap, thighsufficient, however, to show that the naked bone, and two molar theth, found in savage of Périgord, arnod with a stone 1891-92 by Dr. Eugène Dubois in the lance or javelin, pursued and slew the uppor pliocene beds at Trinil, on the formidable anrocha. To these may banks of the river Bengavan, in Java, ES- ·PORTRAIT OF MAMMOTA. Drawn with a diut on a place of Mammoth's Ivory ; fruid Cave of La Madeleine, Dordogne, Franco. FARLIKST PORTRAIT OF A MAX, WITH SERPENT AND IORS.LS' URADI Fromu Grotto of Les Eyzićs. Reiudeor Period C . RELYDEER 7DINO. frona Grotto of Thaugen, near Schalpuson, Switzerland.

·80 MODERN SOIENOE AND MODERN THOUGHT that « which he holds to be the fragments of an before the earliest known Egyptian animal named by him Pithecanthropus hieroglyphs. It is true that their love of Erectus, or "upright ape-man." The the decorative and their veneration for several portions were found adjacent, but what is old may explain the persistence at different times, so that their identity of the use of primitive modes of writing as parts of the same individual has been among the Egyptians, but this cannot questioned. But although anthropolo- weigh against the argument that the gists are not in agreement as to the more central position of Mesopotamia remains being positively human, the gave her advantages which quickened majority hold that opinion, and it is not culture within her borders, without significance to note that the Nor do these two great empires monobones were found in that part of the polise the story of antiquity. Explorglobe where it is highly probable that ations in Greece and the surrounding man and ape became differentiated. A archipelago have brought to light a third comparison of the cranium with that of venerable centre, perchance an indigenous Neanderthal shows that it is of decidedly centre of civilisation, whose relics show lower type, and that it may be classified we have probably to deal with a as between the Neanderthal man and the total period of civilisation in the Ægean gorilla. not much shorter than that in the Nile In trying to fix anything like definite Valley.” So that centuries before the dates for man's existence upon earth, we Phænicians launched their craft upon must reverse the process by which we the Midland Sen, or sailed beyond the have proved the enormous antiquity of Pillars of Ilercules, and at a period when his earliest remains, and ascend step by the Iliad and Oilyssey were not in step from the known to the unknown. existence, there was active intercourse The first step is that supplied by between East and West, intercourse, as history. evidenced by the discovery of a com- Until very recently, the palm of an mercial script, even between Arabia and tiquity, limiting that term to the historic Iberia. Thus cloes the epigraphic and period, rested with Egypt. Its chron other material which the spade of the ology started with Menes, its reputed ear antiquarian has upturned and the skill liest king, wliose date Professor Flinders of the philologi:st deciphered, push ever Petrio fixes at 4777 B.C. "with a possible farther back the horizon of history. error of a century." The old scepticism But beyond that receding marge lie the as to the actual personality of the ancient vast domains of man's pilst which it is Pharaohs is dispelled by modern research, the province of the prehistoric archa- Professor Petrie having found traces of ologist, the palæontologist, and the geolkings before Menes, while there appears ogist to explore. good reason for accepting Dr. Borchardt's TIere, then, we take leave of the one claims to have discovered the actual and follow the guidance of the other. tomb and personal relics of that king at The earliest historical civilisations were Nagada, a little north of Thehes. all acquainted with metals, chiefly in the But it would seem that Egypt must form of bronze, which is an alloy of yield priority to Babylonia. For in copper and tin, very hard, easily cast, recent excavations at Nuífar or Nippur, and well adapted for every description of in Northern Babylonia, Dr. Hilprecht tool and weapon. Indeed, it has only has unearthed from the deepest human been superseded by iron within recent deposits in the ruins of the temple of historical times. But the Bronze Age Bel a number of tablets which he was preceded by a long Neolithic period, contends justify him in dating the when stone, finely wrought and often founding of that temple, and the first ground or polished, was used for the settlement cthe city, "somewhere be purposes to which metal was afterwards tween 7,000 and 6,000 B.C. and possibly applied. The men of this Neolithic earlier." And as the tablets are in period, who reached Europe from the scribed with cuneiform characters, which east or south, probably from both regions, are the slow outcoine of picture-writing, were comparatively civilised; they had as are all other alphabetic and syllabic all the common domestic animals, the signs, it may yet be proved that Babylonia dog, horse, ox, sheep, gont, and pig; also possessed a script at least 1,300 years sone of the cultivated cereals and fruits ;

·ANTIQUITY OF MAN 61 . they knew the arts of cooking, spinning, unknown in Denmark and when introweaving, and pottery, they were grouped duced will not thrive there. It is evident into clans and tribes, and lived in villages. therefore, that there have been three Some think the Iberian or Basque people changes of climate, causing three entire may be a remnant of this Neolithic race, changes in the forest vegetation in Denwho were driven westward by the later mark, since these mosses began to be wave of Celtic migration just as the formed. The latest has lasted certainly Celts were driven by the still later waves for 2,000 years, and we cannot tell how of Teutonic and Slavonic inunigrants. Be much longer, so that some period of more this as it may, it is certain that a than 6,000 years inust be assumed for the Neolithic people were spread very widely three changes. over the globe, as their remains of very Now, it is invariably found that remains similar character are found almost every of the Iron Age are confined to the prewhere in Europe, Asia, and America, and sent or beech era, while bronze is found always in association with the existing only in that of oak, and the Age of Stone or most recent fauna and configuration coincides with that of the Scotch fir. of the earth's surface. The kitchen-middens afford another The difficulty in assigning any precise memorial of the prehistoric age in Dendate for these remains arises very much mrk. There are mounds found all along from the fact that the Neolithic passed the sheltered sea-coasts of the mainland into the Bronze or historical civilisation, and islands, consisting chiefly of shells of at different times in different countries. the oyster, cockle, limpet, and other shell- The Australians, the Polynesians, and the tish, which have been caten by the ancient Esquimaux were or are still in the Stone dwellers on these coasts. Mixed-up with period, while steam-engines are spinning these are the bones of various land ani. cotton at Manchester, and the most mals, birds, and fish, and flint flakes, famous cities of Egypt and the East have axes, worked bones and horns, and other been for centuries buried under shapeless implements, including rude hand-made mounds of their own ruins. It is probable pottery. Tho relics are very much the that all Europe renained in the Neolithic same as those found in the fir zone of the stage for many centuries after the his peat mossos, and although old as comtorical date of the commencement of the pared with the Iron or historical age, Egyptian empire. they do not denote any extreme antiquity. Still there are some remains which may The shells are all of existing species, enable us to form an approximate con though the larger size of some of those jecture of the time during which this found on the shores of the Biultic shows Neolithic period may have lasted. that the salt water of the North Sea had The two principal clues are furnished : then a freer access to it than at present. 1. By the Danish mosses and kitchen The bones of animals, birds, and fish are middens. also all of existing species, and no re- 2. By the Swiss lake-dwellings. mains of extinct animals, such as the In Denmark there are a number of peat mammoth, or even of reindeer, have been mosses varying in depth from ten to thirty found. By far the most common are the feet, which have been formed by the red deer, roe-decr, and wild boar. The filling-up of small lakes or ponds in dog was known, and appears to have hollows of the Glacial drift. Around been the only domestic animal among the the borders of these mosses, and at vari earliest Neolithic peoples. ous depths in them, lie trunks of trees Most of the stone implements are rude, which have grown on their margin. At but a few carefully-worked weapons have the present surface are found beech-trees, been found, and a few specimens of which are now, and have been throughout polished axes, which, with the presence the whole historical period of 2,000 years, of pottery and the nature of the fauna, the prevalent form of forest vegetation show conclusively that these Danish re in Denmark. Lower down is found a mains are all of the Neolithic age and zone of oaks, a treo which is now raro sul sequent to the close of the Glacial and almost superseded by the beech. And period. In fact, similar shell mounds are still lower, towards the bottom of the found in almost all quarters of the globe mosses, the fallen trecs are almost en where savage tribes have lived on the tirely Scotch fire, which have been long sea-coast, subsisting mainly on shell-fish, ·52 MODERN SOIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT and they are probably still being formed implements consist mainly of axes, knives, on the shores of the Greenland and Arctic arrow-heads, saws, chisele, hammers, awls, Seas, and in Australia, and remote islands and needles, with a quantity of broken of the Pacific. pottery, spindle-whorls, sinkers for nets, Human remains are scarce in these and other objects. Danish deposits, but numerous skulls In the oldest stations, where no trace and skeletons have been found in tumuli of motal is found, and the decay of which, from their situation and from the pilos to a lower level shows the stone implements being buried with the greatest antiquity, the implements are dend, may be reasonably inferred to be all of the Neolithic type, and the animal those of the people of the peat mosses remains associated with them are all of and shell mounds. They dcnote a short the recent fauna. There are no mamrace with small and very round heads, in moths, rhinoceroses, or reindeer; the many respects resembling the present wild animals are the red deer and roe, the Lapps, but with a more projecting ridge urus, bison, elk, bear, wolf, wild cat, fox, over the eye. badger, wild boar, ibex, and other exist On the whole, all we can conclude from ing species; and of domestic animals, the these Danish reinains is that at some dog, pig, horse, goat, sheep, and at least period, not less than 6,000 or 7,000 years two varieties of oxen. Birds, reptiles, ago, when civilisation had already been and fish were all of common existing long established in the valley of the Nile, species. Carbonised ears of wheat and rude races resembling the Lapps or Es- barley have been found, as also pears and quimaux lived on the shores of the Baltic, apples, and the seeds, stones, and shells who, although so much more recent, of raspborry, blackberry, wild plum, and acquninted with the domestic dog, hazel-nut, and beech-nut. Twine, and pottery, and the art of polishing stone, bits of matting inade of flax, as well as had not advanced much beyond the con the occurrence of spindle-whorls, show dition of the later cave-men of the South that the pile dwellers were acquainted of France; and that this race was suc with the art of weaving, ceeded by one which brought in the much On the whole, these pilo-villages show higher avilisation of the Bronze Age. that a large population lived in Switzer- The lake-dwellings of Switzerland give land for a long time before the dawn of still more detailed and interesting infor history, and that they had already attained mation as to Neolithic times. a considerable amount of civilisation at During a very dry summer in 1854, the their first appearance, which went on Lake of Zurich fell below its usual level steadily increasing down to the time of the and disclosed the remains of ancient piles Roman conquest. Various attempts havo driven into the muni, from which a num been made to fix an approximate date for of deer-horns and other implements were the earliest of these pile villages, but they dredged up. This led to further researches, have not been very successful. They and the result has been that a large have been based mainly on the annount number of villages built on these piles of silting up which has taken place in has been discovered in almost all the somo of the smaller lakes since the piles Swiss lakes, as well as in those of Italy wero driven in, as compared with that and other countries. On the whole, more which has occurred since the Roman than 200 ljave been discovered in Swit. period. The best calculations appoar to zerlaud, and fresh ones are being con show that 6,000 or 7,000 years ago etantly brought to light. They range Switzerland was already inhabited by over a long period, a few belonging to inen who used polished stone implements, the Iron Age and even to Roman times ; but how long they had been thero we while the greater number are almost have no distinct evidence to show. equally divided betwecn the Age of Perhaps 10,000 years may be taken as the Bronze and that of Stone. Some of them outside limit of time that can be allowed are of large size, and must have been for the Neolithic period in Switzerland, long inhabited and supported a numerous Denmar's, or any known part of Europe. population, from the immense number of In Egypt, however, therd is ovidence of implements found, which at one station a much greater antiquity. Fragments alone, that of Concise on the Lake of of pottery, which was entirely unknown Neufchâtel, amounted to 25,000. These in the Paleolithic age, have been brought ·ANTIQUITY OF MAN 53 up by borings in the Nile Valley from it is possible to fix any approximate dates depths whicly at the average rate of ac for the commencement and duration of the euinulation there during the last 3,000 Glacial period. years of three inches and a half in a In the first place, how do we know century, would denote an age of from that there has been any such period ? 13,000 to 18,000 years. Looking at the In England we are more familiar with dense population and high civilisation of water than with ice; we therefore recog- Egypt at the commencement of history, nise at once the signs of the action of 7,000 years ago, it is highly probable that water. If we come across a dry channel, this time at least must have elapsed winding in alternating curves between since the country was first occupied by a eroded banks, and showing deposits of settled agricultural population as far gravel and silt, we say without hesitation, advanced in the arts of life as the lake Here a river formerly ran." But if we dwellers of Switzerland. had lived in Switzerland, we should Any calculation, however, of Neolithic recognise with equal certainty the signs time takes us back a very short step in of glacial action. Suppose any one the history of the human race. The visiting Chamouni walks up the valley Palæolithic period must evidently have to the foot of the Mer de Glace, where been of vastly longer duration. the Arve issues from the glacier, let us Iſere it is convenient to note that the say in autumn, when the front of the theory of an absolute break, through geo glacier has shrunk back some distance, logical changes and subordinate causes, what does he see? Rounded and polished between the Palæolithic and Neolithic rocks, which seem as if they had been Ages which long held the field, has dis planed by a gigantic plane working appeared (except in Great Britain) before downwards over them, and on these a the evidence against tenantless intervals mass of uniscellaneous rubbish shot down in prehistoric times. The tools and as if from a dust-cart, consisting of weapons found in certain caves, as at stones of all sizes, some of them boulders Solutré, in the Maçon district, and at as big as a house, scattered irregularly Mentone, show an overlapping of earlier on a mass of clay and sand. When he and later specimens, which witness to looks more closely he will see that these fusion in more or less degree between stones are not rounded as they would be prehistoric peoples. Doubtless in the by running water, but blunted at their more northerly parts of the Continent angles by a slow grinding action ; and there were local migrations and retreats, in many cases, both the stones and the but there was no wholesale withdrawal rocks on which they rest are scratched or extermination of the ruder races, and striated in a direction which is that leaving vacant areas for their conquerors. of the glacier's motion. At the liotton Europe hns been continuously inhabited of this rubbish-heap he will tind the cluy by man since he first set his foot in it, and into which the rock has been ground by the proofs of this, ever increasing, come the full weight of the glacier, very stiff in the shape of the rude specimens of and compact; while if he looks down tlie art which link Northern with Southern valloy, he will see, on a hot day, a swollen Europe, and, what is of the deepest and turbid river issuing from the meltinterest, both regions with the Eastern ing ice and flooding the ineadows, on Mediterranean. For these and other which it will leave a deposit of fine mud. materials, more advanced in character, These are effects actually produced by are revolutionising the old theories of ice; and wherever he sees them he can European civilisation, which held it to ipfer the former presence of a glacier, as be a wholly imported product, and are certainly as wilen he sees a bed of showing how indigenous that culture rounded pebbles he infers the former was, originating, mayhap, as shown presence of running water. The planed already, in the islands of the Agean, and rocks are commonly known as roches diffusing itself, not without Oriental moutonnées, from a fancied resemblance of influences upon it, in westerly direstions. their smooth, rounded luminocks to the In carrying our researches further backs of a flock of sheep lying down; back, the possibility of assigning any. the rubbishi heaps are called moraines thing like a definite date for the existence and the stiff bottom clay with boulders of man depends on the question whether embedded in it is called the grund. ;

·54 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT one moraine, till, or boulder clay; while the swept over the whole Continent, leaving blunted and scratched stones are said to its record in the form of drift and be glaciated. boulders, down to the 40th parallel of These tests, therefore, roches moutonnées, latitude. It is, difficult to realise the moraines, boulders, and glaciated stones, existence of such gigantic glaciers, but are infallible proofs that wherever we the proofs they have left are incontrofind them there has been ice-action, vertible, and we have only to look to either in the forın of glaciers, or of ice Greenland to see similar effects actually bergs, which are only detached portions in operation. The whole of that vast of glaciers floated-oll when the glacier country, where at former periods of the ends in the sea. Now, if our inquirer earth's history, fruit-trees grew and a extends his view, he will find that these genial climate prevailed, is now buried signs, the meaning of which he has deep, under one solid' ice-cap, from learned at the head of the valley of which only a few of the highest Chamouni, are to be found equally in peaks protrude, and which discharges every valley and over the whole plain of its surplus accumulation of winter Switzerland, up to it height of more than snow by hugo glaciers filling all the 3,000 feet on the slope of the opposite fiords and pushing out into the sea Jura range, while on the Italian side the with an ice-wall sometimes forty or fifty Glacial drift extends far into the plains miles in length, from which icebergs are of Piedinont. continually breaking off and floating Extending our view still more widely, away. A still more gigantic ice-wall we find that every hişh mountain range surrounds the Southern Pole, and in a in the Northern hemisphere has had its comparatively low latitude presented system of glaciers; and great an insuperable barrier to the further mountain inass, that of Scandinavia, has progress of the ships of Sir J. Ross's been the nucleus of an enormous ice-cap, expedition. radiating to a distance of not less than À still closer examination of the 1,000 iniles, and thick enough to block up Glacial period shows that it was not one with solid ice the North Sea, the German single period of intense cold, but a pro- Ocean, the Baltic, and even the Atlantic longed period, during which there were up to the 100 fathom line. This ice-cap, several alternations, the glaciers having coalescing with local glaciers from the retreated and advanced severaltimes with biglier lands of England, Scotland, and comparatively mild inter-glacial periods, Ireland, swept over their surface, regard but finally with a tendency on cach sucless of minorinequalities of hill and valley, cessive advance to contract its area, until as far south as to the present Thames the ice shrank into the recesses of high Valley, grinding-down rocks, scattering mountains, where alone we now tind it. drift ana boulders, and, in fact, doing Another notewortlıy point is that during the first rough sub-soil ploughing which this long Glacial period there prepared most of our present arable several great oscillations in the level of fields for cultivation. The same ice-sheet sea and land. spread masses of sinilar drift Such was the Glacial period, and to Northern Germany, Sweden, Denmark, assign its date is to fix the date when we and the northern half of European know with certainty that man already Russia, and left behind it numerous existed, and had for some long though boulders which must have travelled all unknown time previously been an inthe way from Norway or Lapland. habitant of carth. Is this possible? To If we cross the Atlantic we find the answer this question we must begin by same thing repeated on a still larger considering what are the causes, or comscale in North America. A still more bination of causes, which may have given gigantic ice-car, radiating from the rise to such a Glacial period. When we Laurentian ranges, which extend to look at the causes which actually prowards the Pole from Canada, has duce existing glaciers, we find that exglaciated all the minor mountain ranges treme cold alone is not sufficient. In the to the south up to heights sometimes coldest known region of the earth, in exceeding 3,000 feet, and coalescing with Eastern Siberia, there are no glaciers, for vast glaciers thrown off by the Rocky the land is low and level and the air dry. Mountains from their eastern flanks, has On the other hand, in New Zealand, in were over ·ANTIQUITY OF MAN 66 sea. the latitude of England and with a sistent with the general laws of Nature, mean annual temperature very similar and with the leading facts of the actual to that of the West of Scotland, enormous generation of glaciers at the present day. glaciers descend to within 700 feet of the Astronomers believe that they have sea-level. The reason is obvious; tho discovered such a cause in the theory Alps of the South Island rise to the height first started by Mr. Croll, that the glaciaof 11,000 feet above the sea, and the pre tion of the Northern hemisphere was due valent westerly winds strike on them to a secular change in the shape of the laden with moisture from their passage earth's orbit, combined with the shorter over a wide expanse of ocean. In like changes produced by the precession of the manner, in the case of the Swiss Alps, equinoxes. The latter cause is due to the the Himalayas, and other great mountilin fact that the earth is not an exilct sphere, ranges, highland and moist winds but slightly protuberant at the equator, everywhere make glaciers. Given the and that the attraction of the sun on this moist wind, any great depression of protuberant matter prevents the axis temperature, whether arising from round which the earth rotates froin reelevation of land or other causes, will maining exactly parallel with itself, and make it deposit its moisture in the form makes it niove slowly round its mean of snow, and the accumulation of snow position just as we see in the case of a on a large surface of elevated land must schoolboy's top, which reels round an inevitably relieve itself by pushing down imaginary upright axis while spinning rivers of ice to the point where it melts, rapidly. This revolution in the case of just as the rain-fall relieves itself by the earth completes its circle in about pouring down rivers to the point where 21,000 years, so that if summer, when the the surplus water finds its level in the pole is turned towards the sun, occurred in the Northern hemisphere when the When the two conditions of high land earth was in perihelion, or nearest the and moist winds are combined, low sun, and consequently winter when it was temperature increases their effect, and in aphelion, or furthest away from the the snow-fall consolidates into it great sun, after 10,500 years the position would ice-cap, from which only the tops of the be exactly reversed, and winter would highest mountains project, and which occur in perihelion and summer in pushes cat gigantic glaciers far over aphelion; the Southern hemisphere then surrounding countries and into adjacent enjoying the same conditions as those of Such is now the case in Green the Northern one 10,500 years earlier. land, and was fornerly the case in And in another 10,500 years things would Scandinavia, where a huge sheet of ice come back to their original position. radiated from it over Northern Germany Now if the earth's orbit were an exact as far as Dresden, filled up the North circle this would make no difference, all Sea, and, coalescing, with smaller ice the four seasons would be of the same caps from the highlands of Scotland, duration and would receive th same solar England, and Wales, buried the British heat in both hemispheres, and if the Islands up to the Thames under massive orbit were nearly circular, so that the ice. At the same period glaciers from difference between the perihelion and the Alps filled the whole plain of aphelion distances was small, the effect Switzerland, and in North America the would be small also. But if the orbit ice cap extended from Labrador to flattened out or became more eccentric, Philadelphia. the effect would be increased. The time The first remark to be nucle is that, traversing the aphelion portion of the as these phenomena depend primarily on annual orbit would beccmo longer and moist winds, and only secondarily on that of traversing the perihelion portion cold, and as moist winds imply great shorter, ts the orbit departed from the evaporation and therefore grent solar form of a circle and became more elliptic. heat over extensive surfaces of water, all Whenever, therefore, the North Pole was explanations are worthless which suppose turned away from the sun in aphelion, a general prevalence of cold, either from the winters would be longer than the less solar radiation, passage through a summiers in the Northern hemisphere, colder region of space, or otherwise. and conversely, the summers would be We must seek for a cause which is con longer thau the winters when, after an seas.

·66 MODERN SOIENOE AND MODERN THOUGHT interval of 10,500 years, precession in their operation and given us a constant brought about the opposite condition of succession of Glacial periods since the things, in which winter occurred in commencement of geological time, when; perihelion. ever the eccentricity became great, which At present the earth's orbit is nearly occurs at irregular periods, but practically circular, and the Northern hemisphere is about three times in every 3,000,000 nearest the sun in winter and furthest years. The answer is that the effects from it in summer, but the difference is would only occur when the other cononly about 3,000,000 miles, or a small ditions were present, viz., high land, moist fraction of the total mean distance of winds, and an absence of oceanic currents 93,000,000 miles, which makes the winter of warın water like the Gulf Stream. half of the year shorter than the summer The latter is one of the inain causes which half by nearly eight days. affect temperature. The difference of But mathematical calculations show temperature between tho equatorial and that under the complicated attractions polar regions causes & constant overflow of the sun, moon, and larger planets, the of heated air from south to north, which eccentricity of the earth's orbit slowly is replaced by an indraught of colder air changes at long and irregular intervals, from north to south, which, owing to the but always within fixed limits, increasing greater velocity of the earth's rotation up to a certain point and then diminish towards the equator, takes the form of ing till it approaches the circular form, tracle-winds blowing constantly from a when it again increases. The marimuni more or less easterly direction. These limit of eccentricity makes the difference winds, sweeping over the Atlantic Ocean, between the greatest and least distances raise its level nč its western barrier, and of the earth from the sun range between the accumulation deflected by America 12,000,000 and 14,000,000 miles, which is flows off in a current which extends to four or five times as great as at present; the western shores of Europe and carries and with this eccentricity, and winter in mild winters into the extrerne North. In aphelion in the Northern hemisphere, the the Orkney and Shetland Islands, which winter half of the year in Northern are ncarly in the samo latitude as Cape latitudes would be twenty-six days longer Farewell in Greenland, there is so little than the summer half, instead of eight ice that skatiug is a rare accomplishment, days shorter as at present. In this state of and curling, the roaring game which is so things the quantity of heat received daily popular some degrees further south, is from the sun in winter would be such as quite unknown. If the Guif Stream were to lower the temperature of the whole diverted, and the highlands of Scotland Northern hemisphicre by 35° Fahrenheit, upheaved to the height of the Alps of and reduce the average January tem New Zealand, the whole conntry would perature of England from 39 to 4", while again be buried under glaciers pushing the inean summer temperature would be out into the Atlantic and German Ocean. about 60" higher than at present. But These considerations may show why this summer heat, derived from solar every period of great eccentricity was radiation, would not counteract the cold not necessarily a Glacial period, though of winter, for all moisture during winter under certain conditions it must inevitbeing accumulated in ice and snow, most ably have been so, and geologists Aro of the solar heat of summer would be generally agreed that the last period of the expended in supplying latent heat to inelt sort must have been one of the main & portion of this frozen accumulation, causes of the great refrigeration which and dense fogs would intercept a large set in over the whole Northern hemiamount of the solar radiation. sphere towards the close of the Pliocene After 10,500 years this state of things period, and continued until recent times. would be entirely reversed, and with But in this case we can fix the date with twenty-six days more of summer, and great accuracy, for calculation shows that the earth 12,000,000 miles nearer the sun the last period of great eccentricity in winter, the Northern hemisphere would began 240,000 years ago, and lasted enjoy something like perpetual spring: 1.00,000 years. For the last 60,000 years There can be no doubt that these are real the departure of the earth's orbit from causes, and the only diffioulty is to account the circular forn has been exceptionally for their not having been more invariable small. We may suppose the Glacial .

·ANTIQUITY OF MAN 57 period, therefore, to have commenced had shrunk back into its valley far 240,000 years ago, come to its height enough to pour its river into the lake. 160,000 years ago, and finally passed M. Forel's calculations give 100,000 away 80,000 years before the present years as the probable time required for time. the river to silt up so much of the lake These dates receive much confirmation as is now converted into dry land. The from conclusions drawn from a totally data are somewhat vague, as on the one different class of facts. A bed of existing hand the rato of deposition may have marine shells of Arctic type, apparently been greater when a large mass of belonging to one of the Intest phases of ice and snow was being welted, whilo the Glacial period, has been found on the on the other hand it may have been top of a hill in North Wales which is now less, while the glacier still occupied the 1,100 feet above the sea-level, and the valley almost to the head of the like, same marine drift seenis to extend to a and the Rhone had only a course of a height of upwards of 2,000 feet. Thero fow miles. All that can be said, there. must, therefore, have been a depression fore, is that it gives an approximate of the land suflicient to carry it many date for the close of the Glacial period fathoms below the sea, and a subsequont which, like that derived from rates elevation sufficient to carry the sea of depression and elevation, corresponds bottom up to a height of certainly 1,100 wonderfully well with the date required and probably over 2,000 foet. In all pro by Croll's theory. bability, these moveinents were very Now, whether the date be a little slow and gradual, like those now going more or a little less, it is clear that inan on in Greenland and Scandinavia, for existed on earth' throughout a great there are no signs of earthquakes or part, if not the whole, of the Glacial volcanic eruptions in the district; and it period. He had existed a long, while is probable that pauses occurred in the in conjunction with a fauna of more movernents, and a long pause when sub Southern and African aspect, beforo sidence had ceased before elevation the reindeer migrated in vast herds into began. Without taking these pauses Southern France. Elis reinains are found into account, and assuming the elevation in caves and river drifts associated with only just completed, and that Sir C. those of the hippopotamus, an animal Lyell's verage of two and a half feet a which could by no possibility have lived century is a fair rate for these slow in rivers which for half the year wero movements, it would have required 50,000 bound hard in ice. Such reinains must years of continued elevation to bring therefore of necessity date either from a these shells, and 80,000 years to bring the period beforo the great cold had set in, or marine drifts, up to their present heiglit from some inter-glacial period prior to above the sea ; and a similar period the great cold which drove the reindeer, previously must be allowed for their musk ox, glutton, and Arctic hare as subinergence. We may fairly conclude, far south as the slopes of the Pyrences. therefore, that upwards of 100,000 years In England we can trace distinctly have elapsed since these shells' lived and at least four successions of boulder clays, died at the bottom of the sea towards the that is of the ground moraines of land close of the Glacial period, which corrc ice, separated by deposits of drifts, sands, sponds very well with the date assigned and brick-earths, formed while the by astronomical calculations. glaciers were retreating and melting; Again, another attempt to fix a date and a number of the Palaeolithic implefor the close of the Glacjal period has ments bave been found in what was been made by Monsieur Forel, a Swiss undoubtedly part of the period of the geologist, from actual ineasurements of second or great chalky boulder clay, the quantity of suspended matter which overspreads the southern and poured into the Lake of Geneva by the eastern counties of England up to the Rhone, and the area of the lake which Thames Valley: The discovery of has been silted up since it was filled by Palæolithic remains in the deposit of St, ice. It is evident that this silting up Prest, near Chartres, makos it probable at the head of the lake could only begin that some at least of the ruder instruwhen the great Rhone glacier, which ments date back to the very beginning oyce extended to the Jura Mountains, of the Glacial period, and a good body ·58 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT some of evidence points to the conclusion that or generalised character than the more man was living during the many alter specialised types of later periods, and nations of climate of that period, and the highest order, that of the primates, whenever the glaciers retreated, followed which includes man, ape, and lemur, was, them up closely. as far as is yet known, represented only In seeking to trace back human origin by two or three extinct lemurian forms.. to more remote periods, we must begin The plan on which Nature has worked by describing shortly the geological in the evolution of life seems always to periods during which the existence of have been this: she begins by laying man may have been possible. It is use down a sort of ground plan, or generalless to go tack beyond the Chalk, which ised sketch of a particular form of life, was deposited in a deep sea and forms say, first of vertebrata, then of fish, then a great break between the modern and of reptiles, and finally of mammalian life. the Secondary period, in which latter This sketch resembles the simple theme reptiles predominated, and mammalia of a few notes on which a musician proare only known by a few remains of ceeds to work out a series of variations, small insectivorous and marsupial ench surpassing the other in complication animals. and specialised development in The inauguration of the present state particular direction. Now, in the Eocene of things commences with the Tertiary period we are in the stage of the theme and period. This has been divided into three first simple variations of the manımalian stages : the Eocene, in which the first melody. It hardly seems likely, there. dawn appears of animal life similar in fore, that a creature so highly specialised type to that now existing; the Miocene, as man, even in his most rudimentary in which there is a still greater approxi form, should have existed, and in the mation to existing forms of life, and absence of any direct evidence to the the Pliocene, in which existing types and contrary, it is safe to assume that his species become preponderant. Then first appearance must have been of later comes the Pleistocene or Quaternary, date. including the great Glacial period, But when we come to the Miocene and during which the whole marine and Pliocene periods, the case is different. It nearly the whole terrestrial fauna are of is true that in the Miocene the specialiexisting or recently, extinct species, sation of certain families, as forrinstance though very different in their geographi that of the horse, had not been carried cal distribution from that of the present out to the full extent, and that all the day. And finally we arrive at the recent species of Miocene land-mammals and period, when the present climate and the several of the genera are now extinct. present configuration of lands, seas, But there were already true apes and and rivers prevail with very slight baboons, and even two species of anthromodifications, and no changes have poid ape, one of which, the Dryopithecus, taken place either in the specific whose fossil remains were found in the character or geographical distribution South of France, was as large as a man. of life, except such as can bo clearly Now, wherever anthropoid apes lived traced to existing causes such as the it is clear that, whether as a question of agency of man. anatomical structure or of climate and This is the geological frame-work into surroundings, man, or some creature which which we have to fit the history of man's was the ancestor of man, might have lived appearance upon earth. We have traced also. Anatomically speaking, apes and him through the recent and Quaternary ; monkeys are as much special Váriučiulis we trace him further into the of the mammalian type as man, whom Tertiary ? Speaking generally, we mily they resemble bone for bone and muscle say that the Eocenc period was that in for muscle, and the physical animal man which Europe began to assume some is simply an instance of the quadrumanous thing like its present configuration, and type specialised for erect posture and a in which mammalian life, of the higher larger brain. The larger brain, implying or placental type, began to supplant the greater intelligence, must, also have given lower forms of marsupial life which had him advantages in contending with outpreceded. But these higher types were ward circumstances, as for instance, by for the most part of a more primitive fire und clothing against cold, which might can ·ANTIQUITY OF MAN 69 enable him to survive when other species succumbed and became extinct. If he could survive, as we know he did, the adverse conditions and extreme vicissitudes of the Glacial period, there is no reason why he might not have lived in the semi-tropical climate of the Miocene period, when a genial climate extended even to Greenland and Spitzbergen, and when ample forests supplied an abundance of game and edible fruits. The same reasons apply, withi still greater force, to the Pliocene period, when existing types and species had become more common and when a mild climate still prevailed. The existence of Tertiary man must antecedently be pronounced highly probable; but probabilities are not proofs, and the near Chartres, which were always considered to be Pliocene. Since the discovery, however, some geologists have contended that these strata are not Pliocene, but of the earliest Quaternary, or perhaps a transition period between Pliocene and Quaternary. This evidence can. not, therefore, be accepted as conclusive for anything more than proof that man's existence extends at any rate over the whole Quaternary period, comprising the vast glacial and inter-glacial ages which have effected such changes in the earth'ssurface. Less disputable evidence is supplied by the Pliocene of Monte Aperto, near Siena, Italy, where bones of the Balænotus, a sort of Pliocene whale, which bear marks of incisions which to all izppearance must INCISED BONK OF BALANOTUS. Pliocene. Froin Monte Apcrto. Figured by Quatrofagos, " Hornnes Fossilus et Hommes sauvages," p. 93. fact of such existence must be determined by the evidence. All that can be said is that while there ought to be great caution in admitting as established a fact of such importance, there onght to be no deterlained predisposition to disbelieve it, like that which for so many years retarded the acceptance of the evidence for Palæolithic man. On the contrary, the fact that man existed in such numbers and under such conditions as have been described in theQuaternary period, establishes a strong presumption that his firstappearance must date from a much earlier period. Let us see how the evidence silands. Undoubted stone implements, and bones bearing traces of cuttings hy flint knives, have been found in strata int St. Prest, have been made by flint knives employed in hacking off the flesh. Doubts were thrown at first on this, as it was thought that possibly tish, or somegnawing animal like the beaver, might have cut the grooves with their teeth. But later specimens have been found on which the cuts have a regular curvature which could not have been made by any teeth, and present precisely the sanie appearance as the cuts which are so commonly found on the bones of reindeer and other animals in hundreds of Paläolithic caves. M. Quatretages, who is t very eminent and at the same time very cautious authority, says, in his last work on the subject published in 1884, “Honines Fossiles et Hommes Sauvages," that "the most in- ·60 MODERN SOIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT ono 8 credulous must be convinced. Had they who appointed a commission of fifteen been found in Quaternary beds no one of the most eminent European authori. would have hesitated to regard them as ties in such matters to report, upon it., intentionally caused. The hund of man Nine reported that some of the flints armed with & cutting instrument could showed undoubted alone have left marks of this sort on & traces of human plain surface. It is evident that some workmanship, five horde of savages of these remote tinies were of an opposite had found the carcase of this great ceta opinion, and cean stranded on the shore, and cut the was neutral, Since flesh off with stone knives just as the say. then fresh objects ages of Australia do at the present day.” have been found, If these bones of the Balenotus really and M. Quatrefages, bear marks of human tools, the spectacle who had formerly which might have been witnessed on the Leen doubtful, says shore of the Pliocene sea perhaps 500,000 in his recent work : years ago, must have closely resembled "These new objects, FLINT SCRAPER that given by Sir John Lubbock from a and especially From Theday. Mioceno description by Captain Grey of a recent scraper which is one Figured by Quatrefagea, whale feast in Australia. “When a whale of the most dis- "Hummen Foanilos et Hommes sauvages," p. 92. is waslied on shore it is a real godsend to tinctly characterthen). Fires are immediately lit, to give isud of that class of notice of the joyful event. Then they implements, implements, bave removed my last rub themselves all over with blubber, doubts.” And certainly, if the tigures and anoint their favourite wives in the given at page 92 of his “Hommes same way; after which they cut down Fossiles et Honinues Sauvages" correctly through the blubber to the beef, which represent the original innplenents, and they sometimes eat raw and sometimes they really camo from Miocene strata, broil on pointed sticks. As other natives doubt is no longer possible. The evidence arrive they 'fairly eat their way into the of design in chipping into a determinate whale, and you see them climbing in and shape is quite as clear as in the similar about the stinking carcase, choosing tit class of implements from Kent's Cavern bits.' For days they remain by the car or the Cave of La Madeleine. They must case, rubbed from head to foot with stink either have been chipped by man, or as ing 'blubber, gorged to repletion with Mr. Boyd Dawkins supposes, by the putrid meat-out of temper from indi Dryopithecus or some other anthropoid gestion, and therefore engaged in con ape which had a dose of intelligence so stant frays--suffering from a cutaneous much superior to the gorilla or chimdisorder by high feeding--and altogether panzee as to be able to fabricate tools. a disgusting spectacle. There is no sight But in this case the problein would be in the world, Captain Grey adds, 'more solved and the missing link discovered, revolting than to see a young and grace for such an ape might well have been fully-formed native girl stepping out of the ancestor of Palaolithic man. the carcase of a putrid whale.' The next instance is froin Otta, in the The evidence for Miocene quan is much valley of the Tagus, where flint impleof the same character: very strong and ments were alleged to have beeu disconclusive as far as it goes, but resting covered by an eminent Portuguese geoloon too few instances to be universally gist, Señor Ribeiro, in Miocene strata. The accepted. In 1868 the Abbé Bourgeois subject was fully discussed on the spot, laid before the Anthropological Congress at a meeting of the Anthropological Conat Paris certain tints which he had gress at Lisbon in 1880. The general found in situ in undoubted Miocene strata opinion seemed to be that some of the at Thenay, ii the Beauce, near Blois. implements showed undoubted traces of They were received with general incre ,huinan design, but some good authorities dulity, and the traces of human design remained steptical; and although there were depied. The Abbé, however, per was no doubt that they were found in sisted, and having inadde fresh discoveries Miocene strata, it was thought possible the subject was referred to the next that flints of Quaternary age might have meeting of the Congress at Brussels, fallen into fissures, or been mixed up with

·MIOCENE IMPLEMENTS YROM THENAY COMPARED WITH UNDOUBTED
PALÆOLITHIO IMPLEMENTS FROM QUATERNARY OAVES AND DRIITS.
MIOCENE.
BORAR, OR AWL.
Thenay. Miocene.
Contés Préhistorique,
Bruxelles, 1872.
QUATERNARY. Cbaleux,
Belgrim. Roindeer Period.
Congti's Préhistorique,
Bruxelles, 1872.
SCRAPER, OR RUDR
kniix. Thenay. Mio.
Quitrefages,
cene.
SCRAPKR. Thensy. Miucena.
Quatrelages, p. 92.
P. 92.
QUATERXARY.
Trova Le Moustier
QUATERNARY. Mammoth Period.
River Drift, Mosvin, Belgium.
Congres Prehistorique, Bruxelles, 1871

·62 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT Miocene sands by floods at some very with bones of the extinct Mastodon and reinoto period, and thus become encrusted Megalonyx. But, although undoubtedly in a Miocene matrix. of great antiquity, there is no proof that. The verdict ass to Miocene man in it does not belong to the Quaternary Europe remains “ Not proven" Leaving period, especially as the mastodon seems to have lived until comparatively recert times in America, its remains being often found in recent bogs and peat mosses. The same remark will apply to the skull which was found, in digging a well at New Orleans, under six.distinct layers of cypress forests such as are now growing on the surface, showing as many periods of successive subsidences, subsequent elevations, and stationary periods long enough to allow of a forest growth of many generations of large trees. Here again the antiquity must be very great, but we have no reason to carry it back into Tertiary periods, or beyond the recent periods when the Mississippi began to flow in its present course and form its present delta. Human remains have also been discovered in caves in Brazil and Mexico associated with bones of extinct animals, but we have no clear information as to the time when these animals became extinct, or as to the exact order of superposition in which the human skulls and implements were found, and the occurrence of a polished stone celt in the same cave throws still inore doubt on their extreme antiquity. Aithough the instances ciled might be multiplied, it must be remembered that remains of Tertiary man are not likely to be abundant. lf man was then living, it was probably in fewer numbers and in TERTIARY ILACHE. more limited areas. The pressure of From Miocerie Strata of Tagua Valley. population had not yet driven wandering (Half the actual size.) Quatrefages, "lommes Fossiles et Homines fiordes to follow sea-coasts and cross rivers Sauvages." and mountains in pursuit of food. Probably at this carly period man lived the Old World for the New, the same will more on fruits, and therefore required apply to the alleged discovery of a human fever implements, and his intelligence skull in Calaveras County, California, was less, so that he had less power of buried under six distinct layers of har fashioning them. For tlie purposes for dened volcanic ashes, and, presumably, which his Palæolithic descendants chipped of Pliocene date, if not earlier. Whitney, stones into shape, he may have used natthe Director of the Geological Survey of ural stones which would often answer the the United States, and other American purpose, but which, when thrown away, geologists, believe this skull to be Plio would leavo nothing by which they could cene, but doubts have been thrown on be recognised. its authenticity, ami European geologists If the forests now inhabited by the do not generally accept it. gorilla and chimpanzee were submerged A human bone is described by Lyell, and again elevated, no trace would be which was found near Vicksburg in found of the existence of animals which sido valley of the Mississippi, associated had built rude nests, used broken branches a ·ANTIQUITY OF MAN 63 us or cene of trees as clubs, and cracked cocoa-nuts same throughout, the whole Tertiary with hammer stones. period carries back barely, one- But above all, the surface of these older twentieth part of the way towards the strata has been so much denuded, that first beginnings of fossil-bearing strata. the situations in which alone we might That is, if 100,000,000 years have elapsed expect to find remains of man have almost since the earth became sufficiently entirely disappeared. Ninety-nine hun solidified to support vegetable and dredths of our Quaternary implements animal life, the Tertiary period may have come from river drifts or caves. Where lasted for 5,000,000 years ; for are the Pliocene or Miocene rivers or 10,000,000 years, if the life-sustaining caves? They have disappeared amidst order of things has lasted, as Lyell supthe revolutions of the earth's surface and poses, for at least 200,000,000 years. the constant denudation which wastes Even if we take the shorter period, the continents away. The negative evidence time is ample for the enormous changes would be strong if we could point to which have taken place since the comcaves filled with bone-breccias of a Plio mencement of the Eocene period. The or Miocene fauna, in which no average rate of denudation over the trace was found of human remains. But globe has been taken at about one foot it is weak as against even a single in 3,000 years, froin actual calculations well-ascertained instance, if it merely of the average amount of solid matter amounts to such remains not being fre carried down by the Mississippi and quently found where we could hardly other great rivers. Now at this rate it expect to find them. And it is werk would take only 2,000,000 years to wear against the strong presumption that the whole of Europe down to the seawhen Quaternary man is found in such level, and, in the absence of any comnumbers and under such conditions, pensating movements of elevation, the spread over wide areas in inhospitable whole of North America would be washed climates, he must have had his first origin away and deposited in strata at the in earlier times. The cradle of that origin bottom of the Atlantic indd Pacific remains undiscovered, perhaps undis- Oceans in less than 3,000,000 years. coverable. For in seeking for evidence If, therefore, the origin of ni!!! (ould ahout Tertiary man in Europe, we are be traced down to the middle Jiocene, off the scent. Ile must be searched for in or even to the date of the great anthrothe region orzone where Dr. Dubois found poid Dryopithecus of Southern France the fragments already described, and the (an apo approximating nearest to the search max, nevertheless, be in vain. For chimpanzco), we should have to assume a perchance the area of the parting of the period for his existence of probably ways between the ape-like man and the between one and two millions of years, a man-like ape, as lateral descendants of mere fraction of the time since the earth a pithecoid ancestor, is in some Indo became the abode of life iud existing African land wiich has long been covered causes operated to bring about geological by the sea, and from which, in the warm formations. climates of inter-glacial periods, when i As regards the habits and manners of temperate fora grew in northern lati Quaternary man we know very little tudes, the earliest human beings spread that is positive, and can cnly gather themselves over the then habitable globe, some vague indications from tho relics migrating by way of Africa into Europe, in caves ind river drifts. These, howand by way of both Europe and Asia into ever, are sufficient to establish with America, whiletheancientland-extensions certainty that the law of his existence led him dry-footed, to Australia. has been one of continued progress. With these high probabilities, is it The older the remains, the ruder aro; possible to assign any approximate date the implements and the fewer the trices to man's appearance ? of anything approaching to civilisation. Reckoning by the thickness of the As nlready shown, Neolithic man is different stratified deposits which make comparatively civilised. He has domestic up the earth's trust, and assuming the animals and cultivated plants; he las average rate of their deposition, or what clothing and ornaments, well-fashioned is the same thing, the averago rate of tools and pottery, and permanent wasto of land surface, to have been the dwellings. He lives in societies, builds ·84 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT an are villages, buries his dead, and shows his to have been frugivorous, like their confaith in a future life by placing with geners the anthropoid apes. them food and weapons. As we ascend The abundance of wild animals and the the stream of time these indications of long period for which hunting savuges incipient civilisation disappear. inhabited the samne spots may be inferred The first vestige of the domestic aninals from the fact that at one station alon, is found in the dog which gnawet the thut of Solutré in Burgundy, it is combone of the Danish kitchen-middens, puted that the remains of no less than any of the earliest Swiss lake-dwellings. 40,000 horses have been found. All the When thirty in Palæolithic times, even long bones of the larger animals have the dog disappears, and man has to been split to extract the marrow, which trust to his own unaided efforts in was, as with the modern Eskiinos and hunting wild animals for food. other savages, a great delicacy, and seems Weapons and implements become also to have been used for softening skins more and more rude until, in the oldest for the purpose of clothing. deposits, we find nothing but roughly. Among the split bones a sufficient chippert hatchets, arrow-heads, flakes, number of human bones have been found and scrapers. Implements of bone, to make it certain that Palacolithic man such as barbed harpoons, borers, and was, occasionally at least, a cannibal needles, which are abundant in the and in several caves, notably that of middle Palæolithic or reindeer period, be Chaleux, in Belgium, these bones, income ruder and then disappear. Pottery, cluding those of women and children, which is extremely abundant in the have been found charrell by fire, and in Neolithic period, either disappears alto such numbers as to indicate that they gether or becomes so scarce that it is had been the scene of cannibal feasts. a moot question whether a few of the It is a remarkable fact that cannibalism rudest fragments found in caves seems to have become more frequent as really Paläolithic. If so, they clearly man advanced in civilisation, and that date from the later Palæolithic, and while its traces are frequent in Neolithic pottery was unknown in the earlier times, they become very scarce or alto- Paläolithic times. gether disappear in the age of the mam- Judging from the portraits engraved moth and the reindeer. on bone during the reindeer period, As regards religious ideas they can Palæolithic man pursued the chase in only be inferred from the relics buried a state of nature, though from the pre with the dead, and these ife scarco and sence of bone needles it is probablo umcertain for the earlier periods. The that the skins of animals may have caves in which Palæolithic man lived on been occasionally sewed together by the flesh of the Quaternary animals, split sinews to provide clothing. There have been so often used as burying. can be no doubt that his habitual places in long-subsequent ages, that it is dwelling was in caves or rock-shelters. extremely difficult to ascertain whether Here was his home, here he took his the skeletons found in them are those of meals and allowed the remains of his the original inhabitants. Thus the food to accumulate. His staple diet fainous cave of Aurignac, in which Lartet consisted of the contemporary wild thought he had discovered the tomb of animals, the mammoth, the rhinoceros, men at whose funeral feast mammoths the cave bear, the horse, the aurochs, and and rhinoceroses were consumed, is now the reindeer. Even the great cave lion generally considered to be a Neolithic was occasionally killed and enten, and burying-place superimposed the fox and other smaller animals were abandoned Paläolithic habitation. not despised; while among tribes skilled There are not more than five or six in the use of the bow and arrohv, birds well authenticated instances in which were a common article of food, and fish entire Paleolithic skeletons have been were harpooned by those who lived near found under circumstances in which rivers. Wild fruit and roots were also there is a fair presumption that they doubtless consumed, and from the forma may have been interred after death, and tion of their teeth and intestines it is prothese afford no clear proof of articles bable that if we could trace the diet of the intended for use in a future lifo having garliest races of men we should find them been depositod with them. All we cap On an ·MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 06 of HUMAN Eag. say, therefore, is that from the commence great extent disproved and replaced hy ment of the Neolithic period downwards, the Law of Evolution. there is abundant proof that man had The most striking proof of this is found ideas of a future state of existence very when we trace scientifically the growth similar to those of most of the savage of each individual man from his first tribes of the present day; such proof is origin to his final developinent. Man, wanting for the immensely longer Palæo like all other animals, is born of an egg. lithic period, and. we are left to con The primitive egg, or ovum, which was jecture. The only arts which can with the first germ of our existence is all certainty be assigned to our earliest cell about the one-hundred-aniteventy. known ancestors are those of fire and fifth of an inch in diameter, corisisting of of fashioning rude implements from stone a mass of senii-fluid protoplasm enclosed by chipping. Everything beyond this is in a membriine, and containing a small the product of gradual evolution. speck or nucleus more corcensed protoplasm. This nucleated cell is itself the first form CHAPTER VI. into which MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE mass of siinplo jelly-like proto- Origin of Man from an Eyg.---Like other plasm is differen- Mammals---Development of the Embryo- tiated in the Backbone--Eye and other Organs of Sense course of its evo- --Hish, Reptile, and Maninialian Stages--- lution from its Comparison with Apes and Monkeys original uniform Magnified 100 times. Germs of Human Firculties in Animals-The Dog-Insects---Helplessness of Human Incomposition. The nucleated cell is the starting-point of fant--Instinct-Heredity and Evolutionall higher life, and by splitting up and The Missing Link-Races of Jen--Learling Types and Varieties---Common Origin Dismultiplying repetitions of itself in geotant-Language-How Formed--Grammar metrical progression, provides the cell. -Chinese, Aryan, Somitic,ctc.----Conclusions material out of which all the complicated from Langugge-Evolution and Antiquity structures of living things are built up. - Religions of Savage Races --Closts anil In sexual generation, which prevails in Spirits---Anthropomorphic Deities---Traces all the higher forms of life, this process in Neolithic and Paläolithic Times ---De. requires, in order to start it, the co velopment by Evolution--Primitive Arts--- operation of two such cells or germs of Tools and Weapons-Fire-Flint Imple life, one male, the other feinale. ments—Progress from Palipolithic to Neo- The first remarkable fact is that the lithic Times ---Domestic Animals Clothing human egg is, at its commencement, un- - Ornaments-Conclusion, Man a Product distinguishable from that of any other of Evolution. mammal, and remains so for a long period ALTHOUGH the establishment of the of its growth, going through its earlier great antiquity of the human race has stages of development in precisely the attracted more immediate attention, saine way. At first the egg behaves being a fact at once intelligible to the exactly any other single-celled general public, the researches of ana organism, as for instance that of the tomists and physiologists, aided by the amaba, which is considered the simplest microscope, have brought to light results form of organised life. It contracts in quite as remarkable as regards the the middle and divides into two cells, individual man and his place in Nature. each with its nucleus and each an exact Until recently it was taken for granted counterpart of the original cell. These that man & special miraculous two subdivide into four, the four into creation, altogether superior to and eight, and so on, until at last a cluster of distinct from the rest of the animal cells is formed which is called a morula world. This assumption, gratifying alike from its resemblance to the fruit of the to our vanity, and our laziness in the mulberry-tree. Development goes on, laborious search for truth, has been to a and the globular lump of cells changes as was ·RC MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT into a globular bladder whose outside pression in the outer skin extends until skin is built up of flattened cells. Then the edges close and form a hollow space condensation takes place, from the more in which the eye is formed. At first it is rapid growth of cells at particular points, å mere black pigment mark on the inand the foundation is laid of the actual terior surface of the enclosed space, body of the germ or embryo, the other which develops into the retina, with a cells of the germ-bladder serving only for wonderful apparatus of optic nerves for its nutrition. Up to this point the germs conveying impressions pliotographed on not only of all mammals, including man, it to the brain. The enclosed space itself but of all vertebrate animals, birds, is filled with a fluid, or vitreous humour, reptiles, and tishes, are scarcely dis froin which a lens is condensed for tinguishable. collecting the rays of light and con- In the next stage the outer surface of centrating them on the retina, and by the embryo develops three distinct layers, degrees all the beautiful and complicated the outer one of which, or epidermis, is organs are evolved for perfecting the modified into the skin, sense-organs, and work of the eye and protecting it from nervous system; the inner one, injury. But this fact niust be kept epithelit, into the mucous membrane clearly in view : the process is identically or lining of all the intestinal organs ; the same as that by which the eyes of while the intermediate layer is the raw other animals are formed, and its various material of muscles, bones, and blood stages represent those by which the or MAMMALIAN Eag. Second Stage. First Staga. Third Stage. vessels. The embryo is now contracted organs of vision lave gradually risen to in the middle and assumes the form of a the development of a complete eye, in violin-shaped disc, and it slight longi advancing from the lowest to the higher tudinal furrow appears, dividing it into forns of life. Thus in the lowest, or two equal right and left parts, which is Protista, the eye remains a simple piggradually converted into a tube con ment spot, which probably perceives taining the spin:l marrow, to protect light by being niore sensitive to variations which a chain of bones or vertebra is of temperature than the surrounding developed, forming the back-bone. white cells. The next higher family And now comes what is the most develop a lens, and so on in ascending marvellous part of the process, viz., the order, different families "developing difdevelopment of the brain, eye, ear, and ferent contrivances for attaining the same other organs of sense, from these simple ohject, but all starting from the same elements. The brain begins origin, development of the cells of the swelling of the foremost end of the epidermis, and leading up to the same cylindrical marrow-tube. This divides result, organs of vision adapted for the itself into five bladders, lying one behind ordinary conditions of life of the creature the other, from which the whole com which uses them. I say the ordinary plicated structure of the brain and skull conditions, for there are curious instances is subsequently developed. of the eye persisting, dwindling from The eģe, ear, and other sense-organs, disuse, and finally disappearing, in begin in the same way. A slight de animals which live underground like the as ·O $11002 MANS PLACE IN NATURE 67 mole, or in subterranean waters like of development remains the same as that some fish in the Mammoth Cave of of other mammalia. The rudimentary Kentucky and underground lakes of limbs are exactly similar, the five fingers Carinthia, where the stimulus of light is and toes develop in the same way, and no longer felt for many'generations. the resemblance after the first four The history of the ear and other organs weeks' growth between the embryo of a of sense is the same as that of the eye. man and a dog is such that it is soarcely They are all developments of the cell possible to distinguish them. Even at system of the outer skin, and all pass the age of eight weeks the embryo man is through stages of development identical an animal with a tail, hardly to be with those at which it has been arrested distinguished from an embryo puppy. in the progression from lower to higher As evolution proceeds, the embryo forms of life. The same principles apply energes from the general mammalian to the development of the inner organs, type into the special order of Primates such as the heart, lungs, liver, etc., a to which man belongs. This order, bestriking illustration of which is found in ginning with the lemur, rises through ESTD. 1202 MACHI, HOWRALE Dog (six wecks). MAN (eight wcelo From lacckel's "Schöpfungsgoschichte." the fact that the gill arches, or bones the monkey, the baboon, and tailed ape, which support the gills by which fishes up to tie anthropoid ipes, the chimbreathe, exist originally in man and all panzee, gorilla, orang, and gibbon, which other vertebrate animals above the ranks approiuch nearest to the human type. of fish, but, in the development of the The succession is grarlual from the lower embryo, they iire superseded by the air to the higher forms up to the anthropoid brenthing apparatus of lungs, and con apes, but a considerable gap occurs beverted to other purposes in the formation tween these and man. It is true that in of the jaws and orgien of hearing. In his physical structure man resembles fact, we may say that every human being these apes closely, every bone and muscle passes through the stage of fish and of the one having its counterpart in those reptile before arriving at that of mammal, of the other. But even at its birth the and finally of man. human infant is already specialised by If we take him up at the more ad considerable differences. The brain is vanced stage, where the enıbryo has larger, its convolutions more complex, the Alrcady passed the reptilian form, we spine has a double curvature, adapting it find that for a considerable time the line for an erect posture, and the legs, with a ·MODERN SOIENOL AND MODERN THOUGAT corresponding object, are longer and stronger, while the arms are shorter and less adapted for climbing. The thumb also is longer, making the hand a better instrument for all purposes, except that of clasping the branches of trees, for which the long, slender fingers of the ape are inore available. The great toe also is less flexible, and the foot more adapted for giving the body a firm support and less tor being used as a hand. As growth proceeds after birth these differences become more and more accentuated. The infant chimpanzee is not so very unlike the infant negro, but after a certain age the sutures of the skull close in the former, making the skull a solid box, which prevents further expansion of the brain, and the growth of the bone is directed towards the lower part of the face, giving the animal a projecting muzzle, massive jaws, and a generally bestial appearance, while at the same time its intelligence is arrested and its ferocious instincts become more prominent. Still these higher apes remain creatures of very considerable intelligence and warm affections, as may be seen in the behaviour of those which have been caught young and brought up under the influence of kind treatment. There is a chimpanzee now 1 in the 200- logical Gardens at Regent's Park, which can do all but speak, which understands almost every word the keeper says to it, and when told to sing will purse out its lips and make an attempt to utter connected notes. In the native state they form societies, obey a chief, and often show great sagacity in their manner of foraging for food and escaping from danger. Even in lower grades of life than the anthropoid apes we can see plainly many of the germs of human faculties in an undeveloped state. Those who are fond of dogs, and have lived much with them and understood their ways, must have been struck by the many buman-like qualities they possess, and especially by the very great resemblance between young dogs and young children. They both like and dislike very much the samo people and the same mode of treatment. They like those who take notice of them, caress them, talk to them, and, above all, those whom they can approach with perfect confidence of receiving uniform kind treatment. They dislike those who have no sympathy with them, or whose treatment of them is either cold or capricious. Their great delight is to play with one another, and often to tease and make a pretence of quarrelling and fighting, Both have an instinct for mischief, and are constantly trying it on how far they can go without getting into serious difficulties. Later in life, and in more serious matters, the dog has certainly the germs of higher intelligence, and does a number of things which require a certain exercise of reasoning power. He has a good memory, and imagination enough to be excited at the prospect of a walk where there is a chance of tinding a rat or a rabbit, and to dream of chasing imaginary rabbits when he is lying curledup on the hearthrug. Every, dog has an individual character of his own as clearly defined as that of an individual man, nor can the rudiments of reasoning bo denied to the hound who, in a kennel of twenty others, knows perfectly well that he is Rover, and not Rattler or Ranger, and waits till his name is called to come forward for a biscuit. When he has got it, his sense of property makes him appropriate it as his own, and respect the biscuits appropriated to otlitr dogs, at any mto to the extent of knowing perfeetly well that he is doing wrong if he takes them by force or steals them. In moral qualities the dog approaches even more closely to man. His fidelity, affection, and devotion even to death, ure proverbial. He feels shame and remorse when he has departed from the canine sense of right and wrong or from the canine standard of honour, and is happy when he feels that he has done his duty: What is this but the working of an elementary conscience ? Even in the higher sphere of religious feeling, the dog feels unbounded love'and reverence for the master who is the bigbest being conceivable to him, or in other words, his God; and he shudders as that master does in the presence of anything weird and supernatural. Every good ghost story, begins by describing how the dogs hewled and cringed at their master's feet when the first shadow of supernatural presence was cast on the haunted castle. Capacity for progressive improvenient I 1993.

·MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 69 D can hardly be denied to & race which young of other animals, viz., in the has developed such qualities from ances long period for which it remains in a tors who, like the wild and half-wild dogs condition of utter helplessness. In of Asia and America, had not even learned many of the lower forms of life the to bark, and were as unlike the civilised young creature emerges into the world and affectionate collie as Palæolithic with many of its necessary fuculties comman to his modern successor. In fact, the plete, and has to learn comparatively progress of the dog seems only to be little froin education. The chicken runs limited by the want of organs of speech, about and picks up food on the day it and of an instrument like the hand by escapes froin the egg, and the young which to place himself in closer relation flycatcher, while fragments of the shell with the outer world. still adhere to it, will peck at fies. The same remarks apply to the elophant, As we rise in the scale of creation, whose great sagacity seems clearly at these instinctive aptitudes become fewer, tributable to the possession of such an and more time is required before the instrument in the trunk, inferior no young animal can shift for itself; till at doubt to the hand, but still very superior length, in the human infant, we arrive to the paw of the dog or to the hoof at a stage where for some time it can do enclosed fore-foot of the horse. In all little to preserve its existence except to animals the greater or less perfection of breathe and suck. the instruments by which they act upon The reason of this is doubtless to be and are acted upon by the outer world, found in the higher development which seems to be the principal factor in deter: it is destined to attain. The faculmining the quality of the brain as an tics of every animal depend on two organ of intelligence causes-first, heredity, or those which have In the insect world we find still more been evolved from the type, and become wonderful exeinplifications of the resem fixed by succession through a long series blance between animal and human in of ancestors; secondly, adaptation, or tolligence. Ants live in organised those which are acquired by education, societies, build cities, store-up food for including in the tern everything that is winter, keep aphides as milk-cows, carry requisite to place the animal in harmony on slave-hunting raids, and push the with its surrounding environment. The division of labour to such an extent that first are what are called instincts, which sowo tribes are all workers, others all exist from the birth, and are preserved warriors and slave-owners. These unconsciously and without an effort. actions are not all merely mechanical The last involve an effort, and reference and instinctive, for ants can to a con from the outer stations of the senses siderable extent adapt themselves to cir along the telegraph wires called nerves, cumstances, and alter their habits and to the central office of tlie brain, where mode of life when it becomes neces the message is recorded and the reply sary in the "struggle for existence." considered and transmitted along another The same is true of bees, beetles, and set of nerves to the muscles, where it other insects, but it is useless to dwell on translates itself into action. In either these, for the organisation of the insect case the fundanientiel fact seems to reworld is so different from that of the solve itself into a tendency of molecular mammalian, to which man belongs, that motion to follow beaten rather than no safe analogy can be drawn from one unknown paths. What the brain has to the other. It is from the higher once thought or perceived, it will think mammalian types that we can fairly or perceive more readily a second time, draw the inference that, if like effects and in like manner, a message which has are produced by like causes, the more once been transmitted and rend off along perfect intelligence and morality of man a nerve, com muscle to brain or from must be the same in kind though higher brain to muscle, will be transmitted and in degree than the less perfect manifest read off more readily by practice, until ations of the same qualities in siimals at length it ceases to require conscious of similar though less perfect physical effort and becomes instinctive. We may organisation. see an illustration of this in the facility There is one respect "in which the with which a piano player, who began húrarn infant differs greatly from the by learning the notes with dithculty.

·70 MODERN SOIENOR AND MODERN THOUGHT some acquires such aptitude that the execution of rapid passages becomes niechanical, and can be carried on without a mistake even when the performer is thinking of something else or talking to a bystander. The outer world with which every animal llas to deal from its birth upwards may be compared to a dense forest or jungle through which it has to find its way. A certain number of paths have been cut by its ancestors, and it finds them ready made by heredity; others it constructs for itsel by repeated efforts until they become as broad and easy as those which it inherited ; and finally, if the forest is thick and its area extensive, it can only be explored by leaving the beaten paths of inherited or acquired instinct, and groping the way painfully by conscious effort and attention. We can now see why the lower the animal, or in other words the less extensive the forest, the whole vital energy may be concentrated on the fow beaten paths opened by hereclity, and a few necessary actions may be performed froin the first, instinctively and with great perfection, while in higher organisms the vital energy is employed in developing a great mass of future possibilities rather than a small number of inferior present realities. The baby cannot run about the room and feed itself like the chicken, because the baby has to grow into a man or woman, while the chicken has only to grow into a fowl which can do very little more in its adult than in its infant state. In fact, when we come to analyse the sum of faculties of the adulü man, we find that they are derived to a surprisingly small extent from heredity as compared with education. In saying this, however, it must be understood that the term heredity ” is limited to that direct heredity which transmits characters by instinctive necessity, and not to the far larger sphere of indirect heredity by which faculties, arts, modes of thought, and rules of conduct, are accumulated in civilised societies, and become the principal instrument of education in its larger sense. If it were ossible to suppose a human infant, born of civilised parents, left entirely to itself, what would it grow into? It would have the physical characters and advantages of its human ancestry which heredity transmits; bipedal moveinant, large, convoluted brain with potential capacities ; aptness of land and opposable thumb; but its solitariness would be fatal to its progress. It would not learn to speak, in the sense of using any articulate language ; its Irts might not extend beyond recognising a few articles of food, and perhaps using stones to crack nuts, and constructing rude shelter from branches of trees. It would know nothing of fire, and on the whole it would not be so far advanced as its oldest Paläolithic ancestor. As regards a moral sense, and all that we are accustomed to think the highest attributes of humanity, it is clear that its inind would be a blank. Even at a much more advanced stage, such ideas evidently come from education, and are not the results either of inherited instinct or of supernatural gift. An English child kidnapped at an early age by Apache Indians or head-hunting Dyaks, would, to a certainty, consider murder one of the fine arts, and the slaughter of an inoffensive stranger, especially if accoinplished with a treachery that made the exploit one of little risk, an achievement of the highest manhood. If brought up among Mahoinetans he would consider polygiumy, if among the Todas polyandry, is the natural and proper relation of the All that can be said is, that if recaptured and brought back to civilised society, he would perhaps be assisted by heredity in adopting its ideas more readily than would be the case if he had been born a savage. It is clear, therefore, that the history of the individual inan tells the Sitine story of evolution from low beginnings as is told by that of the human race as truced from Paläolithic, through Neolithic, into modern times. llis law is progress, worked out by conscious effort called forth by the environment of outward circumstances, and accelerated from time to time by the successful efforts of a few superior men, whose greater sum of energy on happier organisation for development, enables them to pioneer new paths through the vast unexplored forests of science, art, and morality. The difficulty of accounting for the development of intellect and morality by evolution is not so great as that presented by the difference in physical structure between man and the highest animal. Given a being with man's brain and man's hand and erect stature, it is easy to ste Sexes. X ·MANS PLACE IN NATURE T1 how intolligence must have been gradually the time is insufficient, and if man and evolved, and rules of conduct best adapted the ape had a common ancestor that for his own good and that of the society as a highly developed anthropoid ape in which he lived must have been formed certainly, and man probably, already and fixed by successive generations, existed in the Miocene period, such anaccording to the Darwinian laws of the cestor must be sought still further back, struggle for life" and the “survival of at a distanco compared with which the the fittest." whole Quaternary period sinks into in- But it is not so easy to see how this significance. It is said also that the disdifference of physical structure aroso, covery of man's antiquity is of quite and how a being who had such a brain recent date, and that fifty years ago and hand, and such undeveloped capa the same negative evidence was quoted bilities for an almost unlimited pro as conclusive against his existence in gress, came into existence. The difficulty times and places which now afford his is this : the difference in structure be remains by tens of thousands. All thic tween the lowest existing race of man and is true, and it may well make us hesithe highest existing ape is too great to tate before we admit that man, whose admit of the possibility of one being the structure is so analogous to that of the direct descendant of the other. The negro animal creation, whose embryonic growth in some respects makes a slight approxi is so strictly accordant with that of mation towards the Simian type. His skull other mammals, and whose higher is narrower, his brain less capacious, his faculties of intelligence and morality muzzle more projecting, his arm longer are so clearly not miraculous instincts than those of the average European man. but the products of cvolution and Still he is essentially a man, and separated education, is alone an exception to the by a wide gulf from the chimpanzee or general law of the universe, and is the gorilla. Even the idiot or crétin, whose creature of a special creation. brain is no larger and intelligence no This is the more difficult to believe, greater than that of the chimpanzee, is as the ape family, which man so closely an arrested man and not an ape. resembles in physical structure, con- If, therefore, the Darwinian theory tains numerous branches which graduate holds good in the case of man and ape, into one another, but the extremes of we must go back to somo which differ more widely than man does ancestor from whom both mау. have from the highest of the ape series. If a originated by pursuing diflerent lines of special creation is required for man, development. But to establish this as a must there not bave been special fact and not a theory we require to find creations for the chimpanzee, the gorilla, that ancestral form, or, at any rate, some the orang, and for at least 100 diilerent intermediate forms tending towards it. species of apes and monkeys which are We require to find fossil remains proving all built on the same lines? for the genus man what the Hipparion What are the facts really known to us and Anchitherium have proved for the as to man, his nature, and his origin ? genus horse, that is, gradual progressive Man is one of a species of which there specialisation from a simple ancestral are in round numbers, according to the type, to more complex existing forms. computations of Wagner and Supan, some In other words, we require to discover 1,480 millions of individuals living at the the missing link.” Now it must be present time on the earth. Tiking thirty admitted that hitherto, not only have years as the averago duration of each no such missing links been discovered, generation there are thus over 3,600 but the oldest known human skulls and millions who are born and die per censkeletons show no very decided ap tury, and this has gone on more or less proximation towards any such pre during the period embraced by history, human type. On the contrary, one of which extends for a great part of the old the oldest types, that of the men of World over thirty centuries, in the case the sepulchral cave of Cro-Magnon, of Babylonia perhaps over ninety, and in is that of a fine race, tall in stature, Egypt, certainly over seventy centuries. largo in brain, and the whole At the commencement of these historical superior to many of the existing raccs periods population was dense, probably in int ma kind. The reply of course is that Egypt and Western Asia denger than at common on ·72 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT crosses present, and civilisation far advanced. predict with much confidence that they The Pyramids, which are among the oldest would either not cross, or, if they did, and the largest buildings in the world, would produce a hybrid progeny of prove this conclusively, both from the inferior fertility. mechanical skill and astronomical science But here he would be wrong, for, in shown in their construction, and from fact, the most opposite races breed freely the great accumulation of capital and together, and produce a fertile progeny. highly artificial arrangements of society Moreover, when we extend our view which could alone have rendered such beyond the clearly distinguished typos of works possible. The great mass of the the white, yellow, and black, as seen in population in these times lived in what Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negro races, is known as the Old World, and was ac wo find these types breaking off into cumulated mainly in the great valley sub-types and shading off towards each systems of the Nile, and of the various other, while a large proportion of the rivers and irrigated plains of the southern human race consists of brown, red, olive, half of the continent of Asirr, Northern and copper-coloured people, who may Asia and Europe were thinly inhabited either be original varieties, or descended by ruder tribes. Of America and the from between the primitive interior of Africa we know little until a races. Small isolated groups differing much later date, but the population was from the main races also crop up, of in all probability sparse and savage; in whoin it is hard to say from whom they Australia, it was still scantier and more are descended or how they got there : as savage ; while in New Zealand and for instance the Hottentots, in South most of the Pacitic Islands it has been Africa ; the pigmy black Negritos of the introduced by migration only within Andamans and other South Asiatic comparatively recent times. islands; the Papuans and Australians; The next leading, fact we have to the so-called hairy Ainos of Japan, and observe is that the human race is not some of the aboriginal races of India. everywhere the same, but is divided To a certain extent climate seems to into several well-varked varieties. Thia have had an influence in creating or demost obvious distinction is that of veloping the main typical differences. colour. In the Old World there are Thus the main line of black races lies three distinct and clearly characterised along the bot tropical belt of the earth groups--the white, the yellow, and the from Old to New Guinea. . But the rule black. These are found mainly in three is not universal, there is no similar type separate zoological provinces : the white in tropical America, where a singular in the temperate and north-temperate uniformity of type and colour prevails zones of Europe and Western Asia, the throughout the whole continent. Even yellow in those of Eastern Asia, and the in Africa we find the Negro type, while black in the tropical zone, principally of retainingitis black colour, shading off Central Africa. Where they are pure and towards higher types and losing its more unmixed, these race-types differ from one animal-like characteristics. Again, colour, another not in colour only but in many the origin of which remains a perplexing other important and permanent charac- problem to the physiologist, becomes ters. The avorage size of the brain, the generally lighter as we pass from tropical complexity of its convolutions, the shape to south-teinperate and from south to of the skull, the bones of the face and north-temperate regions, probably bejaws, the comparative length of the cause the skin needs less protection from limbs, the structure of the hair and skin, the sun's raỹs which the pigmentation the characteristic odour, the suscepti affords. The exceptions supplied by the bilities to various diseases, are all es Esquimaux may be due to their having sentially different, so that no observant six months' unbroken sunlight, and by naturalist, or even observant child or the now extinct Tasmanians to their dog, could ever mistake a Chinaman for migration from tropical regions. a Negro, or a Negro for an Englishman. Erch within great and well-defined races Such a naturalist, seeing for the first themselves there are clearly marked varietime typical specimens of the three races, ties. Thus the white race consists of would pronounce them without hesita the two distinct types of the fair-whites tion to buy distinct species, and would and dark-whites, the former prevailing in ·MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 73 Northern Europe and the latter in South- phis. It is evident, therefore, that where ern Europe, Western Asia, and North no great change has taken place from Africa; the contrast between a fair Swede crossing of races, they will maintain their with flaxen hair and blue eyes, and a special characters unaltered for more than swarthy Spaniard with black hair and 100 generations. Indeed we might say eyes, being almost as marked as between for 200 generations, for the statues and the latter and some of the higher black wooden statuettes from the tombs of Sakor brown races. Throughout a great part kara, the ancient Memphis, which cerof Europe, including specially England, tainly date back for more than 5,000 it is evident that the existing population years, show us the Egyptian type in its is derived mainly from repeated crosses highest perfection, and with a more intelof these two races with one another and lectual and I might say modern expression probably with earlier raves. than is found 1,000 or 2,000 years later, In the existing state of things also it is when the type of the higher classes had evident that if the different races of man evidently deteriorated somewhat froin a kind ever really did pass into one another slight infusion of African elements. under influences like those of climate, the The same conclusion of the great distime of their doing so is long past. A tance at which any common point of colony of English families transported to divergence of the various races of mantropical Africa would to a certainty dieou kind must be placed, is confirmed by long before they had taken even the first totally different line of inquiry, that into step towards acquiring the black velvety the origin of language. skin, the woolly hair, the projecting muzzle, Philologists have clearly proved that and the long narrow skull of the typical languages did not spring into existence Negro, while a Negro colony transported rearly made, like Minerva from the brain to Scotland or Scandinavia would as cer of Jupiter, but have followed the general tainly disappear from diseases of the chest Inw of Nature, and have had their peand lungs, long before they began to vary riods of birth, growth, and evolution from towards the European type. The yellow simple into complex organism. Now there race seems to be on the whole the best is à vast variety of languages, some say fitted to withstand climate and other ex more than a thousand. A large proporternal intiuences, and it certainly shows tion of these are, of course, only what may no signs anywhere of passing over either be called dialects of the same original laninto the Caucasian or the Negro type. guage, as in the case of the whole Indo- On the whole, therefore, if the fact of European family, including Sanscrit, Zend, fertile inter-crossing is to be taken as Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Celtic, ant Slaproving the unity of the human race and vonic, with all their oft'shoots and derived their probable descent from a common branches, as well as many others. Any ancestor, and we are to assume that all one who wants to be convinced of this has the great varieties which we find existing only to refer to Max Müller's works and are the result of modifications gradually trace the history of one verb, viz., that introduced by climate and surrounding used to denote individual existence. circumstances, it is evident that the point Azmi in Sinscrit has become eimi in of divergence must be put at an immenso Greek, sum in Latin (whence sono, suis, distance. and all the modern derivatives of Latin Tris is the more certain, as when we races), and "am" in English ; wbile the look back for a period of more than 4,000 Latiu est, the Greek esti, and the German years, we find from the Egyptian monu ist, are clearly akin to the original asti. ments that some of the best-marked ex It may help in understanding how lanisting types have undergone no sensible guage has been formed if we point out that change. The portraits of negroes and of I ain" originally meant“I breathe," and Semitic dark-whites painted on the walls "he is" is the more general and abstract of temples and tombs of the 12th dynasty, form of "he stands." about 2,000 B.C., might be taken as charac But there are a number of languages teristic portraits of the negro and Jew of between which no such relationship can the present day, and the modern Egyp- be traced, which are constructed on raditian follah reproduces with little or no cally different principles, and have no change the features of the ancient Egyp resemblance with one another in their tians of the days of Rameses and Ameno roots, or primitive sounds used to express ·74 MODERN SCIENOE AND MODERN THOUGHT objects and simple ideas, except in the few tribe wants to convey from his own mind cases where it can be traced to importation to that of his neighbour may he, “The from abroad, or to imitation of naturally man has killed the bear," or "The bear suggested sounds, such as those which has killed the man," or "The” (or "A) have led so mang nations to express the man has killed å bear," or bears," or idea of "mother" by a sound resembling "will" or "may have" killed, and so on the bleating of a lanıb. Obviously, simi through a vast number of variations on larity of sound in such words as are used the original three-note theme. Up to a for the ideas of father, mother, cow, crow, certain point, a man might succeed in thunder, crack, splash, and so on, sug making himself understood by using his gests no common origin, and as most, or three root-sounds in a certain order, aided at any rate a great many roots, were prob- by the pantomime of accent and gesture; ably derived originally in this manner, and the Chinese, though one of the oldest though long since diverted to express civilised peoples of the world, have other ideas by associations which it is im scarcely got beyond this stage. But the possible to trace, the wonder rather is process would be difficult and uncertain, that we should find so many languages and at length it would occur to some with so few roots in common. The best genius that such modifications as those of authorities tell us that a list of fifty to definite and indefinite, past and present, one hundred languages could be made singular and plural, etc., were of general of which no one has been satisfactorily inpplication, not to the particular three or shown to be related to any other. four roots which he wished to connect, The main distinction between lan but to all roots. The next step would be guages, however, is to be found in to invent a set of sounds which, attached their inner mechanism, or grammar, in some way to the root-sounds, should rather than in the mere difference of convey to the hearer the sense in which root-sounds. The result of years of it was intended that he should take them. mechanical training in barbarous Latin This is the fundamental idea of and Greek grammars in our English grammar, but it has been worked out public schools has been to leave the by different races in the most different average Englishman completely ignor- The Chinese and other allied ant of the real meaning of the word races in the South-east of Asia, such as grammar," and alınost incapable of the Burmese and Siamese, have solved it comprehending that it can mean any in the simplest manner. Their languages thing else than a string of arbitrary are what is called monosyllabic--that is, rules to be learned by heart for the each word consists of a single syllable, vexation of small boys. and is a root expressing the fundamental And yet grammar is really most idea, without distinction of noun from interesting, as showing the modes by verb, active from passive, or other modiwhich the dawning human intellect has fications. They have to trust, therefore, proceeded, at remote periods and among to express their meaning, mainly to different races, in working out the great syntax, or the order in which words problem of articulate speech, by which succeed one another, which, up to a man rises into the higher regions of certain point, is the simplest method, thought and is mainly distinguished from and is largely adopted in modern Englislı. the brute creation. Consider first what Thus, "Man kill bear," "Bear kill Wan," the problem is, and then some of the convey the meaning just as clearly as the principal modes which have been in classical languages do by cases, when they vented to solve it. distinguish whether the man is the killer Suppose some primitive race to have or the killed by saying homo or honvinen, accumulated a certain stock of root But the monosyllabic system limits the words, or simply sounds to signify definito nations who use it to an inconveniently objects and simple ideas, they inust soon small number of words, and fails in find that these alone are not sufficient to expressing their more complex relations, convey briefly and clearly to other minds so thatawe find the saine word in Chinese the ideas which they wish to express. or Siamese often expressing the most For instance, suppose a tribe bad got different ideas, and the meaning can only root-words to express the ideas of "man, be conveyed by supplementing the root- " bear," and "kiil." What one of the words and syntax by uçcent and other manner.

·MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE GT conventional signs which are akin to the it, but not incorporated with it and primitive devices of gęsture language. remaining distinct. Thus in Turkish, the Thus, in Siamese, the syllable ha, accord root sev, to love, is expanded into ing to the note in which it is intoned, sevishdirilmedeler, meaning "incapable of may mean a pestilence, the number five, being brought to love one another." of the verb "to seek." These are only given as specimens of This very primitive and almost in some of the most marked of the vast fantine form of language is confined to varieties of language which have been one family, that of the Chinese and Indo examined and classified by philologists. Chinese, who, it may be observed, are by They suggest a great many interesting no means simple or primitive in other reflections, but I contine myself to those respects, but stand and have stood for which bear more immediately on the conturies at a comparatively high level subject of man's origin and development. of civilisation. All other races, including It is evident that they imply great the most savage, have adopted some form antiquity for the existence, not of man or other of grammar, i.e., of modifying only, but of separate races of men speakoriginal root-sounds by additional generic ing separate languages. sounds of definite determination but Babylonian inscriptions, estimated by the devices on which they have hit for Dr. Hilprecht to be 9,000 years old, show this purpose are most various. Thus, the that the characteristic features of the grammar of the Aryan family of languages Semitic languages were as clearly estabhas been formed by reasoning out such lished then as they are now; and the hierogeneral categories of thought as articles, glyphics of Egyptian monuments, 7,000 pronouns, and prepositions, coining years old, show the Coptic language essensounds for them and prefixing these tially the same as modern Coptic, and alsounds to the root-sounds as separate though presenting some points of analogy determinating signs. More complex with Semitic, too different to be classed shades of meaning are conveyed prin- with it. If these are descended from a comcipally by inflections, i.e., by adding nion ancestor, clearly their origin must be .certain generic new sounds to the original extremely remote. And even with unroot-word, and incorporating them with limited time it is difficult to conceive how it so as to form modifications which are a such radical differences in the structure of sort of secondary words. Thus the ideas languages could have arisen unless the difof prewent, past, and future love, loving, ferent races had branched off before any and being loved, lovely, and so on, are clear form of articulate speech had be. formed by transforming the root ano into come fixeul. Could race accustomed such modifications as amor, amavi, amabo, for generations to the free-flowing inflecanians, amabilis, etc. We can see this tional Aryan, have deserted it for the process in the course of formation in the cramped forms of the Semitic, or, vice change which converted the old English versa, could the Semite have adopted the form “ Cæsar his" into the modern modes of thought and expression of genitive " Cæsar's.” Sanscrit? And the same ditficulty would Other families again obtain the same apply in at least twenty or thirty cases results by very different processes. The of other fainilies of language. Semitic languages, for instance, including It must be recollected that language is Hebrew, Arabic, Assyrian, and Pha:nician, not inerely the conventional instrument are what is called “triliteral," i.c., they of thought, but to a great extent its consist of roots mostly of three con creator, and the mould in which it is sonants, and express different shades of cast. The mould may be broken, and grammatical meaning by altering the races abandon old and adopt new laninternal vowels. Thus, from the root guages by force of external circumstances, m-l-k are derived mdek, a king ; malak, such as conquest or contact with and he reigned, and so on. absorption by superior races, but there The so-called Turanian family, com is no instance of its being so transformed prising Huns, Turks, Finns, Lapjxs, and from within as to pass into a totally other Mongoliail races of Northern Asia, different type. Nor can we very well all speak agglutinative languages, i.e. see how root-words once attached to languages in which the root is put first fundamental ideas, such for instance as und is followed by suffixes strung on to the simpler numerals, should come to be ·76 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT forgotten and now and totally different the human race must have been already words invented. in existence for a very long period, and Of course, the explanation was easy in in existence as at the present day in the olden days, when everything was several sharply, distinguished varieties, referred to miracle. Languages were so that the cominon origin, if there be' different because God, to battle the at one, must be placed still further back. tempt of united mankind to build a tower As history verified by the Babylonian high enough to reach to heaven, had made monuments extends over a period of, say, them so. But the theory of special nearly 9,000 years, this is equivalent to miraculous creation for each language saying that such a period can only be a cannot stand a moment's investigation. very small part of the total time which As in the case of the animal world, has elapsed since nian became an inspecial creations, if admitted at all, must habitant of the earth, be multiplied to an extent which becomes The origin and development of reabsurd. Is every petty tribe of savages ligions have been much discussed, but who speak a language unintelligible to too often with a desire to make theories others to be supposed to have had it square with wishes. The subject also conferred upon it as a miraculous gift? does not admit of such precise determina- Was the language of the extinct Brazilian tion as in treating of arts and languages, tribe, of which Humboldt tells us that a which have left traces of themselves in very old parrot spoke the last surviving the form of primitive implements and words, one of the languages used to primitivo roots. scatter the builders of the Tower of The history of religions really begins Babel? Or, still more conclusively, where with written records, or, at the earliest, we know and can prove that one part of with the older myths which are embodied & language is the product of natural in these records. But these are all comlaws, can we assume that another part of paratively modern, and imply a conthe same language is the result of miracle? siderable progress in civilisation before Did it require Divine inspiration to they could have existed. If we wish to make the old Egyptians call a cat miaou, form some idea of what may have been. or to teach so many nations to ex the primitive elements from which repress the idea of mother by imitating ligion was evolved during the long the bleating of a lamb? If not, why Neolithic and still longer Palæolithic should half the words in a dictionary be periods which preceded history, we must miraculous and half natural ? look at what are actually the religious And if Cæsar is correctly reported to ideas of contemporary savage and semihave been more proud of discovering a barbarous races. new case than of conquering Gaul, ought As we rise ahove the level of the lowest not to render unto Cæsar the savagery we find ideas of religion bethings that are Cæsar's," and assign ginning to grow from two main tap-roots. grammar as well as words to human One is the idea of ghosts or spirits, invention? In short, no reasonable man which arises naturally from dreams and who studies the subject can doubt that visions and develops itself into ancestor language is just as much a machine of and hero-worship, and belief in a world human invention for communicating of spirits, good and evil, influencing men's thought, as the spinning jenny is for lives and fortunes, and in many forlis of spinning cotton. sickness taking possession, of their bodies. The general conclusion, then, to be This spirit-worship also necessarily leads drawn from the study of language points to some dim perception of a future life. in the same direction as that of all other The other tap-root is the inevitable branches of science, viz., that their true disposition to account for the phenomena history is that of evolution from simple of nature, when men first began to retiect origins by the operation of natural laws on them, by the agency of invisible over long periods of time into forms of beings like themselves ; in other words, of greater complexity and higher develop- anthropomorphic gods. Perhaps this is a ment. What language really does for us higher and later stage of religious belief is to take up the thread where the oldest than the former, for it implics a certain history fails us, and show that even at disposition to inquire into the causes of this date it is impossible to doubt that things and a certain amount of reas ning we ·MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 77 power to infer like causes from like far from the question of the first dawn rusults. of religion among primitive man. Judg- But the two often blend together, as in ing from the earliest facts of history, and the religions of the Aryan-speaking the analogy of modern savage races, peoples, in which we see deified heroes wo might look for the first traces of and ancestors crowding the courts of religious ideas from the contents of Olympus, with a multitude of anthropo- tonils and from idols. When a tribe morphic gods, who are often merely had attained to some definite idea of a obvious personifications of natural pheno-. future life it would almost certainly bury mena or astronomical anyths. Thus, Thus, weapons and implements with its dead, Varuna, Ouranos, or Uranus, are said to as is the case with modern savages. When be personifications of the vault of heaven; it had reached the stage of worshipping Phæbus, the shining one, of the sun; anthropomorphic deities, it would prob- Aurora, of the dawn ; while Hercules is ably frime images of them, some of which half deitied hero and half solar myth. would be found in their tombs and dwell- Sometimes, however, of the two sterns of ings. religion one only has flourished, and the The latter test soon fails us. In the other has either never existed, or been early Egyptian tombs, and in the remains overshadowed by the first and relegated of the prehistoric cities excavated by to a lower sphere. Thus the great Dr. Schliemann, images of owl and ox- Chinese civilisation, comprising such a headed goddesses, and other symbolical large portion of the human race, has figures or idols, are found in abundance. apparently developed its popular religion But when we ascend into Neolithic times, from the idea of spirits and spirit- such idols are no longer found, or, if worship. The worship of ancestors is its found, it is so rarely that archæologists main feature, and its sacred books are; in still dispute as to their existence. Cereffect, treatises on ethics and political tain crescents found in the Swiss lakeeconomy, with rules for rites and cere dwellings were at one time thought to monies to enforce decent anci decorous indicate a worship of the inoon, but the behaviour, rather than what we should better opinion seems to be that they were call works of religion. used as rests for the head during sleep, as With other races again, and specially we find similar objects now used in many the Hebrew, the idea of a tribal anthropo- parts of the world. Among the many morphic God has gradually swallowed thousand objects recovered from these up that of other gods, developed into Swiss lake-dwellings and other Neolithic that of one Almighty Being, and dwarfed abodes, there are only a very few which that of ghosts and spirits. Their primi- inay possibly have been rude idols or tive God was anthropomorphic, and amulets, and the only ones which may be modelled on the idea of an Oriental said with some certainty to have been sultan-sometimes good and beneficent, idols, are one or two discovered by Mons. but sometimes cruel and capricious, and de Braye in some artificial caves of the above all jealous of any disrespect and Neolithic period, excavated in the chalk enraged by any disobedience. Morality of Champagne, which appear to be inseems at first to have had little or nothing tended for female figures of life size with to do with these conceptions, and there heads somewhat resembling that of the is not the remotest trace in the early owl-headed Minerva. history of any religion, of its having When we pass to Paläolithic times the been bom ready-made from the necessary evidence of idols becomes more faint, and intuition of one Almighty God of love, rests solely on the slender conjecture that mercy, and justice, which is so con some of the figures carved by the Reindeerfidently assumed by many métaphysicians men of La Madeleine and other caves, may and theologians. On the contrary, con probably have been intended for amulets. science had to be first evolved, and the As they were skilful carvers, and fond of process may be followed step by step by drawing whatever impressed itself on their which, as manners became milder and imagination, the presumption is strong ideas purer, the grosser attributes of that they had not advanced to the stage Deity gradually yielded to the idea of a when the worship of gods symbolised by just and merciful God idols had coure into existence, as other- These considerationis, however, lend us wise more undoubted idols must have ·78 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT been found in the caves whicb were so viduals, and it may be doubted whether long their habitations, and which have they were buried there, or merely died in yielded such a number of remains of works the caves in which they lived, in which of art. case any implevients found with them. The evidence for a belief in a future ex do not necessarily imply that they were istence and in spirits is more conclusive. placed there for use in a future life. On Throughout the whole Neolithic period we the whole it seems doubtful whether any find objects which were evidently intended certain proofs of burials denoting knowfor use in a future life buried with the ledge of a future life can be found in dead. Wefind also in many Neolithic tombs Palieolithic times, and if there are, they a singular fact which points to the exist are certainly few and far between, and ence of a very long belief in evil spirits. contined to the later stages of that period. Many of the skulls, especially of young All we can say is, that religion certainly people, have been trepanned, that is, a did not descend ready-madle among these piece of the skull has been cut out, making aboriginal savages, but that, like language, a hole, apparently, to let out the evil spirit it was slowly developed from beginnings which was supposed to be causing epilepsy as rude as those we now find among the or convulsions; and where the patient had lowest races of sivages. recovered and the wound healed, when he It may be well, however, to say here, died long afterwards, a piece of the skull, once for all, what is applicable to many including this trepanned portion, was other passages in this book, that the sometimes cut out and used apparently question of the origin of any religion is as an amulet. The objects deposited in entirely different from that of its truth graves show that the idea of a future life, or falsehood. To explain a thing is not as with most savages of the present day, to disprovo it; on the contrary, a thing was that of a continuation of the same only really becomes true to us when we life as he hac led here, though perhaps in understand it. A stately oak, with widehappier hunting-grounds. In some cases In some cases spreading branches, that give shade and a great chief seeins to have had wives shelter to the cattle of the ticles, is not and slaves slaughtered and buried with the less a fact because we know that it him, though the proofs of this did not drop ready-made from heaven, more clear and abundant in later times but grew from The intrinsic than during the Neolithic period. Can truth of a religion must bo tested by the nibalism, however, seems to have occasion conformity which, in a given stage of its ally prevailed both in Palæolithic, Neo- evolution, it bears to the facts of the lithic, and prehistoric times, as it did so universe as disclosed by science, and to extensively among modern savage races the feelings and moral perceptions which before they caine under civilising intlu- have been equally developed by evolution ences. This is clearly proved by the num in the contemporary world. ber of human bones, chiefly of women and All I contend for is, that all religions young persons, which ha been ound have grown and been developed from charred by fire and split open for extrac humble origins, and that their history, tion of the marrow. impartially considered, does not contra- The evidence of belief in a future life dict, but on the contrary greatly confirms becomes more rare and uncertain in Palæo the law of natural evolution. lithic times. Perhaps it may be because Of the two faculties by which mån is we have so few authentic discoveries of commonly distinguished from the brute Palaeolithic burying-places, and so many crcation, viz., that of being the speaking instances of caves, once inhabited by and the tool-haking animal, the former Palæolithic races, being used long after attribute has been shown to be the prowards as Neolithic sepulchres. Atter the duct of evolution from origins long famous cave of Aurignac it is difficult to since lost in the far-off distance of remote trust any evidence as to the discovery of a ages. real Palæolithic sepulchre wKich has not The same remark is even more certainly been subsequently disturbed. truo as fegards the other attribute of tool- In the few cases also where Paläolithic making, or, in its widest sense, adapting skeletons have been found, as in that of natural laws and natural objects to the the men of Neanderthal and Mentone, arts of life by intelligent application. they have often been those of single indi- The primitive roots, so to speak, of this ere in corn.

·MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 79 was industrial language, which in the case of and monkeys will sit before a fire and spoken langunge for the most part elude enjoy its warmth, but no monkey has yet our search, are here furnished by the developed intelligence enough even to Paläolithic remains found so abundantly put fresh sticks on to keep up the fire, in river drifts and caves. There can be no much less to rekindle it when extinct. doubt whatever that the modern wood Primaval man must often have had cutter's axe and carpenter's adze are the experience of fire from natural causes, lineal descendants of the rudely-chipped as from forests and prairies scorched by hâches, or celts, which are dug out of the a tropical sun being set on fire by lightgravels of St. Acheul, or from below the ning, or from volcanic eruptions; but stalagmite of Kent's Cavern. The regu how he learned from these to kindle lar progression can be traced from the fire for himself is not so obvious. Savage mass of flint rudely chipned to a point, races, as a rule, do so by converting with a butt-end left rough to grasp in mechanical energy into heat, by the the hand, up to more symmetrical and friction of a stick twirled round in a carefully-chipped forms; to implements hole, or rubbed backwards and forwards intended to be hafted or fastened to in a groove in another piece of wood; a handle; to implements ground and and there are old observances among polished to a sharp edge and pierced for civilised nations which show that this the handle ; and finally to the finished was the mode practised by their anspecimens of the later Neolithic period, cestors, as when the sacred fire in the which exactly represent the adzo and Temple of Vesta was relighted in this battle-axe, and are almost identical with manner by the old Romans if it had those used quite recently by the Polyne- chanced to be extinguished. It is probsians and other seini-civilised races who able, therefore, that this the had no access to metals. From these the original mode of obtaining fire, but if so, transition to metals is easily traced, the it must have required a good deal of first bronze implements and weapons be- intelligence and observation, for the dis. ing fresimiles of those of polished stone covery is by no means an obvious one, which they superseded, and the gradual nor is it easy to see any natural process development of bronze, and from bronze that might suggest it. to the cheaper and more generally use Neitlier ancient history nor the ful metal, iron, being a matter of quite accounts of existing savage races throw modern history. much light the question. The In like minner, the clevelopment of narratives of the discovery of fire conthe knife, sword, and all cutting instru tained in the oldest records are obviously ments, from the primitive tlint-take, mythical, like the fable of Prometheus, can be traced step by step, and is which is itself a version of the older beyond doubt; and equally the Vedic myth of the god Agni (cognate development of all missiles, from the with Litin ignis or tire) having been primitive chipped flint, used as a javelin taken from a casket and given to the or arrow-head, up to the modern rifle. first man, Manou, by Pramantha, which When we catch the first glimpse of the in the old Vedic language means taking beginnings of human art or industry, the forcibly by means of friction. Of the furniture or stock-in-trade of l'alaolithic silmne character are the mythical legends manappears to have been as follows: of savage races of tire having been first He was acquainted with fire. This brought by some wonderful bird or seems to be clearly established by the animal; and there is nowhere anything charred bones, charcoal, and other traces like an authentic tradition of the fact of fire which are found in the oldest of its first introduction. There have Palæolithic caves, and even in the far been reports of savages who were unacdistant Miocene period, if we can believe quainted with fire, but they have never in the flints discovered by the Abbé Bour. been well authenticated, and the nearest geois in the strata of Thenay, some of approach to such a state of things was which appear to have been split by the probably furnished by the aborigines action of fire. This is a remarkable of Van Diemen's Land, of wliom it is said fact, for a knowledge of the means of that in all their wanderings they were kindling firo is by no means very particularly careful to bear in their hands simple or obvious attainment. the materials for kindling a fire, in the on SO a Apes ·80 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGAT shape of a firebrand, which it was the not much inferior to that of the Esquiduty of the women to carry, and to keep maux and other Arctic races. carefully refreshed from time to time We then pass into Neolithic times, as it became dull. when many of the chief elements of On the whole, traditions all point to fire civilisation are already in full force. having been first obtained from friction, Man has emerged in many localities and it is possible that the first idea nay from the hunter into the pastoral stage, have been derived from the boughs of the principal domestic animals are trees, or silicious stalksof bamboos, having known, and in some of the later lakebeen set on fire when rubbed together by dwellings he has advanced a stage the action of the wind, or by the rubbing further, and has become an agriculturist of the hands together. living in villages. From this to the It is easier to see the origin of the Bronze and early historical periodis, there renaining equipment of primitive man, is no great break, and the ruder tribes of viz., chipped stones, for flints splintered barbarians described by Carsar and by frost or tire often take naturally the Tacitus may well have been the lineal forins of sharp-edged flakes and rude descendants of the Neolithic men whose hatchets or hanımers, and very little polished axes and finely-shaped arrow. invention was required to improve these heads lie scattered over the surface of specimens, or endeavour to imitate them Europe and are found in innumerable by artificial chippings. It is rather burial-mounds and dolmens. surprising that this art did not improve But in Paläolithic times, though we more rapidly, for it is evident that the can see constant progress, mankind is old Paläolithic period must have lasted still in a state of unmitigated barbarism. a long time before any decided progress Agriculture was clearly unknown, for began to show itself. And during this the hand-mills, restles, and mortars, long period a singular uniformity which are among the most enduring and appears to have prevailed throughout abundant relics where grain was used for the Paläolithic world. The rude forın of food, are never met with. Pottery was the celt or härhe, with a blunt butt and unknown in all the carlier periods, and cliipped roughly to a point, is found in it is questionable whether even the the oldest river gravels and caves wher rudest forms of baked clay, moulded by ever they have been investigated, and hanıl, are found where there is fio interthe forms of the Somme and the Thames mixture of a sulisequent Neolithic labispecimens are repeated in the quartzite tation. The dog wis ciearly not a implements of the Madras laterite. companion of man prior to the era of In the very oldest caves and river the Danish kitchen-middens, for the deposits the tool-equipment of man seems spongy parts of bones which are always to have been very much limited to these gnawed by dogs when dogs are present, rude celts, used probably for smashing are invariably preserved in the lébris skulls in war and the chase, and splitting of Palæolithic caves, and the few bones bones to get at the marrow; sharp of dogs, wolves, and foxes found with edged flakes for cutting ; rude javelinhuman reinains in these caves almost heads; and stones chipped to a rounded always show that the animals had formed edge, very like those used by the Esqui- part of the food of the inhabitants. maux for scraping bones and skins. As Other domestic animals were, il all we ascend in time we find arrow-heads probability, equally unknown, although of stone and bone, at first unbarbed and it has been thought possible that some of gradually becoming harbed, showing that the tribes of the reindeer period may the low had been discovered ; harpoons have hid herds of the half-tame deer, of lone and fish-hooks ; bone pins and like the modern Laplanders. This conneedles; and a much greater 'variety jecture, however, appears to rest solely and more carefully-chipped forins of on the large number of bones and horns Aint tools and weapons ; until we finally found at certain stations, which may reach the upper reindeer stage of caves have a risen from their having Leen occulike that of In Madeleine, where artistic pied for a very long period, and as the drawings and carvings are found, and dog was unknown, it seems probable that the equipment generally is superior to no other animals had been domesticatad. that of many existing savage tribes, and As regards clothing, the first certain

·DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARROW.
FLINT ARROW IN V'ERTT.BRA OF REINDEER.
Paleolitbic. La Madeleine.
l'ALEOLITHIC.
dan motl Periud. LO Moustior.
l'ALA:OLITHIC.
keindvor Period.
PAIXOLITHIC.
Reindeer Period.
First rostige of barb.
PALEOLITRIO
Reindeer Poriod.
m
NEOLITHIO.
Denmagk.
NEOLITHO.
NEOLITHIC.
Iroland.
Denmark.
(From Lubbock': "Probistoric Timon.*)
RECEVT.
Esquimaux

·82 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT proofs of its use are afforded by the bone pins and needles, which were evidently employed for fastening the skins of animals together, while the scrapers were used for scraping these skins and fashioning the bone implements. It is probable, therefore, that the use of skins as a protection igainst the cold of the Glacial period, was known at a very early period. Ornaments, also, are of very early date. Perforated shells, sometimes fossil, and pierced teeth of the bear and other animals are frequently found under circumstances which show that they must have been strung together as necklaces. The skeleton found in a cave at Montone had a number of perforated shells of Nassa, and a few stags' teeth also perforated, dispersed about the skull, evidencing that they had formed some sort of head ornament. Lumps of red hematite, also, probably used for paint, have been found in some of the caves of the reindeer period. Captain Cook's description of the savages of Tierra del Fuego would have applied to the men of that period, "although content to be naked, they were very ambitious to be fine;" and probably like these poor Fuegians, they adorned themselves with streaks of red, black, and white, and wore bracelets and anklets of shell and bone. If we wish to form some ideas of the manners and custoins of our Palæolithic ancestors, we inust look for them among existing savage races 'whose mode of life, and equipment of tools and weapons, most nearly resemble those of the earliest cave-dwellers. The Australians, the Bushmen of South Africa, the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands, and the Fuegians are probably the lowest specimens of the human race known in modern times ; but even these are in some respects further advanced in the arts than Paläolithic The Bushmen are skilled in the use of the bow, and have discovered the art of poisoning their arrows. The Australians, Mincopies, and Fuegians have canoes, harpoons, and fish-hooks. The latter approach more neawy to the , conditions of life of the savages who accumulated the kitchen-middens on the coasts of Deninark at a much latar period, and the Bushmen probably represent those of the cave-men who lived principally on the produce of the chase of large animals, such as the man moth, rhinoceros, cave bear, horse, and deer. The pigmy Bushman will attack the elephant, the rhinoceros, and even the lion, and often succeed in killing them by pitfiulls or poisoned arrows. The inforences, therefore, to be drawn, alike from the physical development of the individual man, and from the origin and growth of all the faculties which specially distinguish him from the brute creation--language, religion, arts, and science -- point to the conclusion that he is a product of laws of evolution, and not of special or miraculous creation. Still, granting this, we inust admit on the other hand, that until more of the "missing links” are discovered, and the origin of man thus placed on a basis of scientific certainty, there is an opening left for the belief that here, if nowhere else, there wils some supernatural interference with the laws of Nature, and that the finger of the clock-hiker did here alter the hands of the clock from the position which they would have occupied under the original law of its construction. But if this were so, it must equally in candour be admitted that the miracle did not consist in placing man and wom:n upon earth, at any recent period, or withi faculties in any way developed, but could only have consisted in causing a germ or germs to corno into existence, different from any that could have been formed by natural evolution, and containing within them the possibilities of conscious and civilised man, to be developed froin the rudest origins by slow and painful progress over countless ages. man.

·PART II.--MODERN THOUGHT CHAPTER VII MODERN THOUGIIT Lines from Tennyson-The Gospel of Modern Thought-Change exemplified by Corlyle, Renan, and George Eliot-Science becoming Universal-Attitude of Orthodox Writers-Origin of Evil -- First Cause unknowable--New Philosophics and Religions- Herbert Spencer and Agnosticism ---Comte and Positivism-Pessimisin-Mormonism-- Spiritualism-Dreams and Visions—Somnambulisın-Mesmerism. That I, considering everywhere Her secret meaning in her deeds, And finding that of fifty seeds She often brings but one to bear, I falter where I firmly trod, And falling with my weight of cares, Upon the great world's altar-stairs That slope thro' darkness up to God, I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gither dust and chalf, and call To what I feel is Loril of all, Anıl faintly trust the larger hope. . but no. Oh yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of ined; That nothing walks with aimless fcet; That not one life shall be destroy'd, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete ; That not a worm is cloven in vain ; That not a nioth with vain desire Is shrivel’id in a fruitless fire, Or but subserves another's gain. Behold, we know not anything. I can but trust that good shall fall At last-far off-at last, to all, And every winter change to spring. So runs my dream : but what am I? An infant crying in the night : An infant crying for the light : And with no language but I cry. “So careful of the type? J'rom scarperi cliff and quarried stone She cries, " A thousand types are gone : I care for nothing, all shall go. “ Thon makest thine appeal to me: I bring to life, I bring to death : The spirit dues but mean the breath : I know no more. And he, shall he, Man, her last work, who seeni'd so fair, Such splendid purpose in his eyes, Who roll'd the pisalm to wintry skies, Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer, Who trusted God was love indeed, And love Creation's final law- Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, sbriek'd against his creed. - Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills, Who battled for the True, the Just, Be blown about the desert dust, Or seal'd within the iron hills ? No more? A monster then, a dream, A discord. Dragons of the prime, Thåt tare each other in their slime, Were mellow music match'd with himn. O life as futile, then, as frail ! O for thy voice to soothe and bless ! What hope of answer, or redress : Behind the veil, behind the veil. TENNYSON, In Menoriam (By kind permission of LORD TONYROM) L.V. The wish, that of the living whole No life may fail beyond the grave, Derives it not from what we have The likest God within the soul! Are God and Nature then at strife, That Nature lends such evil dreams : So careful of the type she seems, So aarelens of the single life ;

·84 MODERN SOIENCE IND MODERN THOUGHT THESE noble and solemn lines of a great poet sum up in a few words what may be called "the Gospel of Modern Thought." They describe what is the real attitude of most of the thinking and earnest minds of the present generation. On the one hand, the discoveries of science have so far established the universality of law, as to make it impossible for sincere men to retain the faith of their ancestors in dogmas and miracles. On the other, larger views of man and of history have shown that religious sentiment is an essential element of human nature, and that many of our best feelings, such as love, hope, conscienco, and reverence, will always seek to find reflections of themselves in the unseen world. Hence faith in dogma has diminished and charity increased. Fower believe old creeds, and those who do, believe more faintly; while fewer denounce them, or are insensible to the good they have done in the past and to the truth and beauty of the essential ideas that underlie them, On the Continent, and especially in Catholic countries, where religion interferes more with politics and social life, there is still a large amount of active hostility to it, as shown by the massacre of priests by the French Communists; but, in this country, the old Voltairean infidelity has died out, and no one of ordinary culture thinks of denouncing Christianity as an invention of priestcraft. On the contrary, many of our lead. ing minds are at the same time scoptical and religious, and exemplify the truth of another profound saying of Tennyson: There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds. The change which has come over modern thought cannot be better exemplified than by taking the instance of three great writers whose works have produced & powerful influence--Carlyle, Renan, and George Eliot. They were all three born and brought up in the very heart of different phases of the old beliefs- Carlyle, in a family which might be taken as a type of the best qualities of Scottish Presbyterianism, bred in a Lowland farmhouse, under the eye of a father and mother whom he loved and revered, who might have been the originals of Burns' “Cotter's Saturday Night," or the descendants of the martyrs of Claverhouse. His own temperament strongly inclined to a stern Puritanical piety; his favourite heroes were Cromwell and John Knox;. his whole nature was antipasthetic to science. As his biographer, Froude, roports of him, He liked ill men like' Humboldt, Laplace, and the author of the Vestiges. He refused Darwin's transmutation of species as unproved ; he fought against it, though I could see he dreadlod that it might turn out true.” And yet the deliberate conclusion at which he arrived was that “He did not think it possible that educated honest men could even profess much longer to believe in historical Christianity." The case of Renan was equally remarkable. He was born in the cottage of Breton peasants of the purest type of simple, pious, Catholic faith. Their one idea of rising above the life of a peasant was to become a priest, and their great ambition for their boy was that he might be so far honoured as one day to become a country curé. Young, Renan, accordingly, from the first day he showed cleverness, and got to the top of his class in the village school, was clestined for the priesthood. He was taken in hand by priests, and found in them his kindest friends; they sent him to college, and in due tine to the Central Seminary where young men were trained for orders. All his traditions, all his affections, all his interests, led in that direction, and yet he gave up everything rather than subscribe to what he no longer believed to be true. His conversion was brought about in this way. Having been appointecl assistant to n professor of Hebrew he became a profound scholar in Oriental languages; this led to his studying the Scriptures carefully in the original, and the conclusion forced itself upon him that the miraculous part of the narrative had no historical foundation. Like Carlyle, tho turn of his mind was not scientific, and while denying miracles he remained keenly appreciative of all that was beautiful and poetical in the life and teaching of Jesus, which he has brought more vividly before the world in his writings than had ever been done by orthodox commentators. George Eliot, again, was brought up in yet another phase of orthodox Chris. tianity--that of middle class nonconformist Evangelicalism. She embraced this creed fervently, and, as we see in her "Dinah," retained a keen appreciation ·MODERN THOUGHT 85 of all its best elements. But as her This is nowhere more apparent than intellect expanded and her knowledge in the writings of those who attempt to widened, she too found it impossible to stem the tide which sets so strongly rest in the old belief, and, with a painful against orthodoxy. They resolve them. *wrench from a revered father and loving selves mainly into one long wail of “oh friends, she also passed over from the the pity of it, the pity of it!" if the ranks of orthodoxy. She also, after a life simple faith of olden times should disof profound and earnest thought, came appear from the world. They show to the conclusion recorded of her by an eloquently and conclusively that science intimate friend and admirer, M. Myers : and philosophy cannot satisfy the as- "I remember how at Cambridge, I pirations or aiford the consolations of walked with her once in the Fellows' religion. They expose the hollowness of Garden of Trinity, on an evening of the substitutes which have been prorainy May; and she, stirred somewhat posed, such as the worship of the unbeyond her wont, and taking as her text knowable, or the cult of humanity. the three words which have been used so They win an easy triumph over the exoften as the inspiring trumpet-calls of aggerations of those who resolve all the men--the words God, Immortality, Duty-- historical records of Christianity into pronounced, with terrible earnestness, myths or firbulous fulfilment of prohow inconceivable was the first, how un phecies, and they wage fierce battles over believable the second, and yet how per minor points, is, for example, whether emptory and absolute the third. Never, the first quotations from the Gospels are perhaps, had sterner accents affirmed the met with in the first or second half of the sovereignty of impersonal and unrecom second century. But they nowhere atpensing law. I listened, and night fell; tempt to grapple with the real diffiher grave, majestic countenance turned culties, or to show that the facts and toward me like a Sibyl's in the gloom ; it arguments which converted men like was as though she withdrew from my Carlyle and Renan are mistaken facts grasp, one by one, the two scrolls of pro and unsound arguments. Attempts to mise, and left me the third scroll only, harinonise the Gospels and to prove the awful with inevitable fates." inspiration of writings which contain Such instances as theso cannot be the manifest errors and contradictions, have result of here accident. As long as scep gone the way of Buckland's proof of a ticism was confined to a limited number universal deluge, and of Hugh Miller's of scientific n'en it might be possible to attempt to reconcile Noah's ark and the think that it was merely the exaggera- Genesis account of creation with the tion of a particular train of thought pur facts of geology and astronomy. Not an sued too exclusively. But when scienco inch of ground that has been conquered has become the prevailing mode of by science has ever been reconquered in thought, and has been brought home to fair tight by theology, the minds of all educated persons, it is This great scientific moveinent is no longer possible to represent it as an of comparatively recent date. Darwin's exceptional aberration. And where the "Origin of Species was published only bell-wethers of thought lead the way, the in 1859, and his views as to evolution, flock will follow. What the greatest development, natural selection, and the thinkers think to-day, the company of prevalence of universal law, have already thinkers will think to-morrow, and the annexed nearly the whole world of great army of non-thinkers will treat as modern thought and become the foundaself-evident the day after. This is very tion of all philosophical speculation and nearly the case at the present day; the scientific inquiry: great thinkers have gone before, the mass Not only has faith been shaken in the of thinkers have followed, and the still supernatural as a direct and immediate greater mass of non-thinkers are waver agent in the phenomena of the worlds of ing and about to follow. It is no longer, matter and of life, but the demonstration with those who think at all, a question of the "struggle for life" and "survival of absolute faith against absolute dis of the fittest" has raised anew, and with belief, but of the more or less shade of vastly augmented force, those questions "faintness" with which they cling to the as to the moral constitution of the unilarger hope." verse and the origin of evil, which have ·86 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGIIT answer. so long exercised the highest minds. Is and Eternal Energy," inscrutable and it true that "love" is Creation's final past finding out; and of a universe whose law," when we find this enormous and processes we can trace, but of whose ulti-- apparently prodigal waste of life going inate essence we know nothing, only, on; these cruel internecine biittles be suspecting, or faintly discerning, a fundatween individuals and species in the mental law which may make the polarity struggle for existence; this cynical in of good and evil a necessary condition of difference of Nature to suffering! There existence. This is a more sublime as well are, approximately, 3,600 millions of as more rational belief than the old deaths of human beings in every century, orthodox conception ; but there is no of whom at least 20 per cent., or 720 doubt that it requires more strength of millions, die before they have attained mind to embrace it, and that it appears to clear self-consciousness. What be cold and cheerless to those who have comes of them? Why were they born? been accustomed to see special provi- Are they Nature's failures, and cast is dences in every ordinary occurrence, and rubbish to the void”? to fincy themselves the special objects To such questions there is no adequato of supernatural supervision in all the We are obliged to admit that details of daily life. Hopes and fancies, as the material universe is not, as we once however, are powerless against facts; and fancied, measured by our standards and the world is as surely p:issing from the regulated at every turn by an intelligence phase of orthodox into that of scientific resembling ours; so neither is the moral belief as youth is passing into manhood ; universe to be explained by simply mag and as the planet which we inhabit is nifying our own moral ideas, and explain pissing from the more tiery state into ing everything by the action of a Being that of temperate heat, progressive coolwho does what we should have done in ing, and tinal extinction its the abode of his place. If we insist on this anthropo life. In the meantime, what can we do morphic conception we are driven to this but possess our souls in patience, follow dilemma. Carlyle bases his belief in a truth wherever it leads us, and trust, as God, "the infinite Good Ong," on this Tennyson vises, that in the long run argument: “All thirt is good, generous, everything will be for the best, and wise, right--whatever I deliberately and “every winter turn to spring"? for ever love in others and inyself, who The decay of old religious beliefs, and or what could by any possibility have the introduction of new conceptions given it to me but One who first had based on scientific discovery, have given it to give? This is not logic; this is rise to many attempts to found new exioin." philosophies, and in some cases new sects But how of the evil? No sincere man and religions, of some of the principal of looking into the depths of his own soul, which a short account toay be given. or at the facts of the world around, can One of the greatest thinkers of modern doubt that along with much that is good, tinies, Herbert Spencer, has expanded generous, wise, and right, there is much the theories of modern science, especially that is bád, base, foolish, ind wrong. If those of the conservation of energy and logic compels us to receive as an axiom a of Darwinian evolution, into a generalgood author for the former, does not tho ised philosophy, embracing not only same logic equally compel us to accept the phenomena of the material arfd liv. the axiom that the author of the latter ing universe, but also history, religion, must have been one who “first had it in politics, and all the complex relations of himself to give"? That is, we must ac social life. He starts from the principle cept the theory of a God who is half that throughout the universo, in general good, half evil ; or adopt the Zoroastrian and in detail, there is iin unceasing reconception of a universe contested by an distribution of matter and motion. This Ormuzd and Ahriman-a good and evil shows itself as evolution where there principle, whose power is, for the present is a predominant aggregation of matter at any rate, equally balanced. and diminution of motion, and as dissolu- From this dilemma there is no escape, tion where matter is disintegrated and unless we give up altogether the idea motion increased. Thus, in the formation of an anthropomorphic God, and adopt of coal, the motion of the sun's rays is frankly.the scientifio idea of an “Infinite fixed in the condensed matter of the ·MODERN THOUGHT 87 chemical products of vegetation, and is unchangeable either by increase or de. dissipated when, after countless ages, crease, there inevitably result the conthe coal is burned and its substance dis tinuous redistributions distinguishable as solved into its elenients. These changes evolution and dissolution, as well as those Constitute a transforination of the uni special traits above enuinerated. That form or homogeneous into the differenti which persists, unchanging in quantity, ated or heterogeneous, as seen in the con but ever changing in form, under these densation of nebulous or cosmic matter sensible appearances which the universe into suns and planets; in the varied presents to us, transcends human knowelements of the inorganic world ; "in ledge and conception, is an unknown each organism, vegetable or animal ; in and unknowable power, which we are the aggregate of organisms, thought and obliged to recognise as without limit in geologic time; in the mind; in society; space and without beginning or end in in all products of social activity." These time." changes are all in the direction of This is, in its highest form, the philopassage from an indefinite whole to desophy of Agnosticism. A very different tinite parts, and they are inevitable, un thing, be it observed, from Atheism, for less the original substance were so abso it distinctly recognises an underlying lutely uniforin as to be absolutely stable. power which, although “unknown and Once started, this process of differen unknowable," iniy be anything harmontiation tends necessarily to go on, the sur ising with the feelings and aspirations rounding conditions being ever at work, in which all religious sentiment has its whether by aggregation or dissolution, origin, so long as it fulfils the condition by joining like to like, or separating un of not, by too precise definition, coming like from unlike to sharpen and make into collision with something which is more delinite existing ditierences. nut "unknown” but “known” and irre- This is in effect a generalised conception concilable with it. of Darwin's laws of the "strugle for life" For instance, there is nothing in Agnos and "survival of the littest.” Finally, how ticisra to negative the possibility of a ever, the result of all these changes is that future state of existence. Behind the an ultimate equilibrium will be reached, veil there inay be anything, and no which is rest in the inorganic and death one can say that individual consciousin the organic world; as when the sun ness may not rernain or ba restored with all its planets shall have parted after death, and that our condition may with all its helt, and all its energy shall not be in some way better or worse, achave run down to one uniform level. cording to the use we have made of the From this state it can only be roused by opportunities of life. But if any one atsome fresh shock from without, dissipat- tempts to define this future state and say ing it agiin into a mass of ditlused quatter we shall have spiritual bodies, live in and unbalanced motions. the skies, sing psalms, and wave palm- Hence we come to the final statements branches, we say at once, “This is partiy of the Spencerian philosophy, as given in unknowable and partly known to be imthe words of its author :- possible.” “This rhythm of evolution and dissolu Thit which has given the philosophy tion, completing itselfduringsbort periods of Spencer a wide influence is the manner in sin aggregates, anilin the vastaggre in which he applies it to the subjects gates distributed through space com which iuore inmediately concern the pleting itself in 'periods which are iin mass of thinking minds, such as history, measurable by human thought, is, so far politics, and the problems of social life. ils we can see, universal and eternal, each What Darwin shows in animal life and alternating phase of the process predo the origin of species, Spencer traces in ininating, now in this region of space and the rise and fall of empires, the growth now in that, as local conditions determine. and decline of religions, the increasing All these phenomena, from their great complexity of social relations, the confeatures even to their minutest dewils, flicting forces of evolution and dissolution are necessary reselts of the persistence at work around us in our every-day life, of force under its forms of matter and in the relations of science and theology, motion. Given these as distributed capital and la hour, state socialism and through space, and their quantities being laissez-fuire. For instance, the decline of ·88 MODERN SOIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT ) 1s the Roman Empire and its overthrow by the barbarians is analogous to the decay of a planet from loss of internal heat and its dissipation into matter capable of fresh evolution, by the shock of a comct. The ever-increasing gulf between wealth and poverty, science and superstition, resembles the process by which the onetoed horse becamegradually differentiated more and inore from the common five-toed type of its reinote ancestor. These speculations of Spencer, pursued with vast acuteness and research through all branches of social science, though they have not founded a new religion or established a new sect, have undoubtedly exercised a great intluence on modern thought, especially among the rising generation. Another "ism" which, although it has exercised a much narrower influence than the philosophy of Spencer, has founded it sect and put forward more detinito claims to give the world a new religion is that wliich is known as “Positivism," or Comtism," from the name of its founder, Auguste Comte. It is not easy to understand, but its essence seems to be this: Admitting that science has killed theology, and that the old forms of supernatural religion, inevitable in the childhood of the world, have becomeincredible, Comte cast about for some idea which should be at the same time “positive, or based on ascertained fact, and fervid enough to satisfy the cravings of religious sentirnent. He thought he found it in “Humanity ;" that is, in love and veneration for the abstract idea of the human race, taken collectively, and considered in its past, present, and future relations. As patriotism, a very ardent feeling, is the love of a limited section of the human race; and as it has been gradually enlarged from the limits of a tribe to those of a city, and from those of a city to those of a country or nationality, he conceived that it might be still further enlarged so as to einbrace all mankind. So far it may be adınitted that there is a germ of truth in Cointe's idea, and that elevated minds niay enlarge their view beyond the narrow bounds of a particular country at a particular period, and may derive fresh incentives to action, and fresh subjects for ennobling thought, from a contemplation of the past progress, present condition, and future possibilities of the collective human raca. But there is a homely proverb that charity begins at home," and as, we widen the sphere of patriotism or philanthropy we are very apt to diminish their intensity and find them evaporate in a mist of high-sound-* ing phrases. The "friend of man very apt to be the friend of no one man in particular, and to make universal philanthropy an excuse for neglecting individual charity. Apart, however, from this objection, and granting that with increased intercourse and incroased culture "Humanity” inight become a more practical idea, we should be still a long way from making it the basis of a new religion. It is here that Comte has laid himself open to such criticism as that of Huxley, who defined Positivism us“Catholicism without Christianity." With the narrow systematising logic so characteristic of tho French in. tellect Comte has worked out a complete scheme of ritual, hierarchy, and all the apparatus of an old religion. A supreme pontiſk at its head, associated with a supreme priestess to represent the female element; for saints, the distinguished men of philosophy, theology, art and science ; for days of worship, féte days of these saints, and meetings to commemorate their merits, and to observe certain “sacraments." All this savours too much of the “Goddess of Liberty," and of the theo-philan. tlıropy of the French Revolution, when the disciples of Rousseau cut off heads in the name of universal benevolence, to find much acceptance in a sceptical age and among it practical people. Robuster intellects, like George Eliot, even where they incline to accept Humanity as an ennobling iden, and to recognise Comte as an original thinker, reject all the constructive and cereinonial part of his new religion as unworthy of notice; while to the mass of thoughtful persons the whole thing appears unreal and paradoxical. Ono more “ism"-Pessimism, the gospel of feebleness and failure-has had a considerable effect on the Continent, though little in this country. It is based on the fact that, in accordance with the universal law of polarity, progress is not an uitmixed good, but develops a corresponding negative of failure. In simple forms of society the distinctions between wealth and poverty, capital and labour, culture and ignorance, are not so sharplý defined, and the lot of those who fail in ·MODERN THOUGHT a the battle of life is not so hard as when repeating our own gestures. To men are congregated in crowded cities, healthy man or to a strong man the . exposed to temptations, and tantalised pessimist view of the universe is simply by the sight of wealth and luxury before impossible. If he has experienced a fair their eyes and yet beyond their reach. average of happiness and success in life, Amass of misery and discontent is thus he instinctively rejects a creed which created, which in lower natures translates tells him that there are no lights as well itself into anarchism and fanatical hatred as shadows. If he has a mind of average of all above them, while in higher ones it strength, he feels that suffering is a thing takes the form of theories for the re to be avoided prudently, borne stoically, generation of the world by levelling or grappled with courageously, and not everything that exists, and building to be run away from by moral or physical anew on fresh foundations. Still higher suicide. minds see the futility of these theories, Accordingly l'essimism is not a creed and take refuge in a philosophy which which is ever likely to exert much inpronounces the world a mistake, life an fluence on the strong, practical Angloevil, anduniversal suicide theonly possible Saxon race, and we can discern some solution of what is radically bad. This faint traces of it only in the tendency of is, in substance, the philosophy of Scho certain very limited cliques of so-called penhauer and the school of Continental Astheticism to admire morbid and self- Pessimists. It has something in conimon conscious ideals, both in poetry and with Buddhism, which regards all personal painting. existence as a painful dream or illusion, It is a very curious and remarkable and places supreme happiness in escape fact, that while so many highly intellecfrom it by annihilation of individuality. tual attempts have been made in vain in To understand how such a doctrine can modern times to found now sects and have found acceptance, we must remem religions, the only one which has had any ber that the tendency of modern civil real success is that which is based on the isation is to throw more and more work most gross and vulgar imposture-Moron the brain and nervous system and less monisin. Morinonism is a fact which, on other organs. This of itself tends to without the vestige of a reasonable arguproduce more ill-health both of mind merit to show for itself, originating in and body,' especially of those digestive thie vulgar ravings and forgeries of a organs upon which the sensation of vulgar Yankee, and violating the first health and well-being so mainly depends. instincts of the family and of society A dyspeptic man is of necessity an un by polygainy, still flourishes in spite happy and desponding man. Moreover, of persecutions and prohibitions. The in ruder states of society such weaklings reason seems to be that, instead of being were got rid of by the sumınary, process a theory in the air or over the heads of of being killed off, while with the more the masses, it is, with all its faults, a prachumane and refined arrangements of tical system in contact with the actual modern times they live on and weary realities of life. Its success is mainly deaf heaven with their fruitless cries." owing to its being an organised systein It is among such men, with cultivated of emigration, and a faith which places intellects, sensitive nerves, and bad its Paradise here on earth and not in the digestion, that we find the prophets and skies. A poor ignorant labourer in Wales disciples of the gospel of Pessimism. or Norway, who becomes a convert to They feel, and feel truly, that as far as Mormonism, is taken in hand at once, they are concerned life is an evil, the forwarded to his destination, and when pains of which far outweigh its pleasures, he arrives there looked after and put in and, having lost faith in a futuro life a way of earning an honest livelihood and where the balance will be redressed, they probably 'becoming a landed proprietor. see no remedy for the miseries of the The ideal set before him is not a very world but that of ceasing to be, or high one, that of becoming a sober, annihilation. industrious, respectable, narrow-minded This affords another illustration of the citizen of the State of Utah, and a creextent to which religions and philoso ditable member of the coinmunity of phies are, like the spectre of the Brocken, Latter Day Saints. But to & poor reflections of our own selves on dissolving labourer from the slums of Liverpool, to mists, clothod with our own clothes and lead such & life, in the pure mountain air ·90 MODERN SCIENOK AND MODERN THOUGHT in the valley of the Salt Lake, and see waking life. Dreams are made up of imhis flocks and herds increasing and his pressions which have been recorded by family growing up, without care for the the brain in its'waking state, and which future, is indeed the realisation of an are revived in new combinations and earthly. Paradise. The moral to draw imaginary scenes, when consciousness is from this is, that the success of a religion, suspended. These impressions are thus under the conditions of modern society, often worked up into a succession of does not depend so much on its theory as dreamis so vivid as to be scarcely distinon the way in which it takes hold of the guishable from reality. It happened to practical problems of life and shows an me, about the middle period of my life, uptitude for grappling with them. to be sent, almost at a day's notice, to Another wide-spread modern delusion, India, where for more than two years I that of Spiritualism, is akin to Mormon had a period of intensely hard work and ism, as showing how little reason has to great responsibility, as finance Minister. do with the beliefs which are most readily This naturally left a number of strong propagated among large classes of the impressions on my brain, which for community. Nothing but the inost years afterwards kept reviving in a morbid appetite for the supernatural, series of connected dreams, in which I combined with the most absolute ignor- fancied myself back in India. I had ance of the laws of evidence, could induce thus a dream life as well as a real life of sane people to believe that, if a corner Indian experiences, and the former was of that mysterious and awful veil were so vivid that, if I were writing reminilifted which separates the living from scences, I should sometimes find it diffithe dead, we shall discover what ? -- cult to distinguish between the two. spirits whose vocation it is to turn tables This enablas me to realise how dreams and talk twaddle. may readily pass into visions. If I had In vain, mediuin after medium is de dozed off in an arm-chair after dinner, tected,' and the machinery by which and fallen into one of my Indian dreams, ghosts are manufactured exposed in I might have seen Lord Canning, who police courts ; in vain, the manifestations had been dead for years, walk into the of the so-called spirits are repeated by as distinctly as if he had been professional conjurors like Maskelyne present in person. In a less critical age, and Cooke, who disclaim any assistance and with a less sceptical turn of mind, I from the unseen world. People are still might readily have been convinced that found to believe the unbelievable because I had seen his ghost. it gratifies their taste for the marvellous, There can be no doubt that, in this way, and enables them to fancy themselves dreams must often, in pre-scientific ages, the favoured recipients of supernatural have originated a bona fide belief in communications. spirits. Herbert Spencer traces to this The explanation that Spiritualism has cause the origin of all religious belief. received a certain amount of acceptance Perhaps this may be carrying it too far, from men of a very different order, like but doubtless it was one of the main Crookes and Wallace, may be found in causes, especially, of that portion of the phenomena associated with it, such religion which took the form of offerings as mesinerism and clairvoyance, which to the dead, and ancestor-worship. have a certain basis of fact, and open up But a still further step may be taken interesting fields for scientific investi from the ordinary dream to the waking gation. The working of the nervous dream or vision. It is a well-established apparatus in certain abnormal conditions, fact that under peculiar and rare circumand the physical effects of imagination, stances the brain inay dream, that is, are subjects imperfectly understood, but revive impressions where there is no well deserving accurate inquiry corresponding reality, without losing its Take, for instance, dreams, which consciousness. There wils a celebrated Afford the first certain starting point case of a Berlin bookseiler in the last towards a theory of visions and appari century, who, having fallen into bad tions. It is as certain that we dream as health, lived for more than a year in the that we sleep, and that in our sleeping company of gliosts-that is, he constantly state we often livo a sort of second life, and women, with overy which is different from our ordinary appearance of being alive, entor tho room SAW men ·MODERN THOUGHT 91 room and come and go as if they had by the effects which are undoubtedly been ordinary visitors. Being a man of produced under certain abnormal cona scientiac turn of mind ho never supditions of the brain and nervous system, posed that these were really ghosts, but as in epilepsy, somnambulism, and mesreasoned on them and recorded his ex merism. periences. Instead of sending for a In the simplest case, that of epilepsy, priest and resorting to exorcisms, he the effect is mainly shown by a more called in a physician and took a course of intense action of nerve-currents, causing medicine, with the result that after a convulsive motions and an unnatural considerable time the ghostly visitors incre:use of muscular strength and gradually became dim and finally dis- rigidity, so that two strong men may be appeared. scarcely able to hold one weak woman. Numerous other cases are recorded in In somnambulism, the effects are more which there is no doubt that visions have complex. The reception of outward imbeen seen, especially under the influence pressions seems to be limited, so that the of religious excitement, and a large whole consciousness and vital energy are number of so-called miraculous appcar concentrated on particular actions, which ances and ghost stories are probably are thus perfornied safely, while in the owing to this cause rather than to con ordinary waking state they would be imscious imposture. possible. Thus i somnambulist walks When we consider the enormous num securely along a plank spinning an abyss, ber of dreams, and probably considerable because the impressions of surrounding number of visions, which occur, instead space do not reach the brain and confuse of being surprised at occasional coinci it with a sense of danger. In this state dences, the wonder rather is that they also past impressions photographed on are not more frequent. If only one per the brain, which in the ordinary wakin cent. of the 30,000,000 inhabitants of the state are obscured by other impression British Isles dream every night, that seem to come out occasionally as i would give 109,500,000 dreams per dreims, enabling the soinnambulist to annum, a large proportion of which are do and remember things which woul inade up of vivid impressions of actual otherwise be beyond his faculties. persons apd events. It is impossible that Mesmerism is closely akin to somnamsome of the combinations of these im bulism. Apart from delusion and charpressions should not form pictures which latanisin the fact scoins to be estirblished are subsequently realised, and we may that it is possible, by artificial means, to be sure that the successes only will be induce a state resembling somnambulism noted, and the failures forgotten. It is in persons of a peculiar nervous temperastrange, therefore, that the researches of ment. As regards the means, the essenthe Isychical Society should not have tial point seeins to be to throw the brain brought to light more instances of death into this abnorinal state partly by keepwarnings and other remarkable coinci ing an unnatural strain on the attention, dences. To take the vulgar instance of and partly by acting on it through the horse-racing. A number of minds are imagination. The experiments of Dr. greatly exercised over the problein of Braid showed that the mesmeric sleep picking out winners, and doubtless a vast could be induced just as well by keeping number of dreams show colours flashing the eye strained on a black wafer stuck past winning-posts, and numbers hoisted on a white wall, as by the manipulations on the telegraph board. And yet I re of an operator. This experiment dismember only two tolerably well-authenti poses of a great deal of mysterious noncated instances in the last half-century, sense about magnetic fluids, overpowerin which any one is said to have backed ing wills, and other supposed attributes it winner on the faith of a dream. The of professional mesmerisers, and reduces only positive result of dreams and visions the question to the plain matter-of-fact is that they frequently occur under cir level of the relations between the brain, cumstances where they are almost certain will, imagination, and nervous system, to be mistaken, by unscientific persons which exist in natural and in artificial in unscientific ages, for actual super somnambulism. These are undoubtedly natural appearances. very curious, and open up a wide field for Another tield of inquiry is opened out plıysiological and mental research. As D ·92 MODERN SCIENOE AND MODERN THOUGHT far as I have seen or read, they seem to of St. John-Evidence rests on Matthew, turn mainly on the reflex effects of an Mark, and Luke-What oach states---Comexcited imagination on other organs and pared with one another and with St. John : faculties. I do not believe that any one Hopelessly Contrudictory-- Miracle of could be mesmerised who was absolutely the Ascension.-Silence of Mark--Probable ignorant of the subject and unconscious Early Date of Gospels-But not in their Present Form. that any one was operating. On the other hand, any one who had frequently been mesmerised would fall into the sleep WHEN men began to reason on the phenoif led to believe that an operator was mena of the world around them, it was at work when there was really not one. inevitable that they should begin by And the peculiar effects shown in the referring all striking, occurrences to mesmeric state are attributable mainly, supernatural causes. Just as they meaif not entirely, to the imagination acting sured space by feet and inches, and time with morbid activity on the slightest by days and years, they referred unusual hint or suggestion of what is expected. events to personal agencies. They knew Thus the will disappears in the more by experience that certain effects were powerful suggestion of the imagination produced by their own wills, inuscular that the patient has to obey the will of energies, and passions; and when they the operator, or do certain things which saw effects which seemed to be of a like are in the programme. I can readily nature, they inferred that they must believe also that in this state the imaginhave been produced by like causes. ation can perform feats which would be To take the familiar instance of impossible to it in a natural state when thunder. The first savage who thought it is kept in check by other faculties, and about it must have said: “The sound is that a good deal of what is called clair very like the roar with which I spring on voyance may be explained by the way a wild beast or an enemy; the flash of in which the slightest hint from expreslightning is very like the flash of the sion, involuntary muscular motion, or arrow or javelin with which I strike him; otherwise, is taken advantage of as a the effect is often the same, that he is substitute for the ordinary modes of comkilled. Surely there inust be some one munication. Such a faculty may also in the clouds, very strong, very angry, doubtless be cultivated by practice, and very able to do ne harm, unless I can thus explain many of the phenomena of propitiate him by prayers or offerings." what are called spiritual communications But after long centuries, cience steps in. and thought-reading. But that impres An elderly gentleman at Philadelphia, sions can be made on the brain, or that Benjamin Frenklin by name, sends up a one mind can communicate with another, silk kito during a thunder-storm, and without some physical medium between behold! the lightning is drawn down object and subject, is unproved and from the skies, tamed, and made to emit remains incredible. harmless sparks, or to follow the course of a conducting wire, at our will and pleasure. There is no more room left for the supernatural in the fiercest tropical thunder-storm than there is in turning CILATTER VIII the handle of an electrical machine, or sending-in a tender to light the stroets of MIRACLES London by electricity. And the result is absolutely certain. In the contest Origin of Belief in the Supernatural-Thun: between the natural and the superder--Belief in Miracies formerly Universal natural, the latter has not only been re- -St. Paul's Testirnony-Now Incrediblepulsed but annihilated. The most ortho- Christian Miracles - Apparent Miracles- Real Miracles_-Absurd Miracles-Worthy dox believer in miracles, if his faith Miracles-The Resurrection and Ascension were brought to the practical test of -Nature of Evidonce required-Inspiration backing his opinions by his money, -Prophecy-Direot Evidence--St. Paul would rather insure, a gin-palace or The Gospelo-What is known of Them gambling saloon proteoted by a light- The Synoptic Grapels—Renemblances and ning-conductor than & chapel protected Differencer -Their Origin--Papias-Gospel by the prayers of a pious preacher..

·MIRAOLES This instance of thunder is a type of incredible miracles, which had only a the revolution of thought which has been temporary value, and can no longer be : brought about by modern science in the believed without shutting one's eyes to whole manner of viewing the phenomena facts and becoming guilty of conscious of the surrounding universe. Former or unconscious insincerity. ilges saw miracles everywhere, the age But to return to miracles. Almost the in which we live sees them nowhere, entire world of the supernatural fades except possibly in the single instance of away of itself with an extension of our the miracles recorded in the Bible. In knowledge of the laws of Nature, as surely the annals of grave Roman historians, as the mists melt from the valley before the In overy page locutus bos. rays of the morning sun. We have seen Not a Cæsar or a Consul died, without how, throughout the widedomains ofspace, time, and matter, law, uniform, universal, an ox speaking, or a flaming sword in the skies predicting portents. If the moon and inexorable, reigns supreme; and there happened to pass between the sun and is absolutely no room for the interference the earth the dim eclipse of any outside personal agency to suspend its operations. The last remnant With fear of change perplexes monarchs. of supernaturalism, therefore, apart from If the winds' blow it is because Æolus the Christian miracles which we shall releases them from the cave ; if the rains presently consider, has shrunk into that fall it is because Jupiter opens the win doubtful and shady border-land of ghosts, dows of heaven, or Indra causes the spiritualism and mesmerism, where vision cloud-cows to drop their milk on the and fact, and partly real, partly imaginparched earth. Perhaps no better proof ary, effects of abnormal nervous condi. can be afforded of the universal belief tions, are mixed up in a nebulous haze that miracles were considered matters of with a large dose of imposture and every-day occurrence than is given by credulity. the pressage in St. Paul's Epistle to the Even this region is being contracted Corinthians, in which he enumerates the every day by every fresh revelation in a principal Christian gifts, and assigns, as police-court; in every fresh discovery of it were, their comparative order and the the laws which regulate the transmission number of marks that should be given of nervous energy to and from the brain; to each in'a competitive examination. and in the abnormal state which con- The power of "working miracles" stitutes epilopsy and somnambulism, and comes low in the list. "First apostles, which enables an excited imagination to secondarily prophets, thirilly teachers, produce physical effects, such as those after that mircles, then gifts of healings, of dristic drugs on a patient who has helps, governments, diversities of actually taken nothing but pills of harmtongues." And he goes on to say, in less paste. words that come home to every heart in The question of Christian miracles, all centuries, that all those things aro however, rests on a different and more worthless as compared with that true serious ground. They have been accepted Christian charity which “sutieroth long, for ages as the foundation and proof of and is kind ; envieth not; vaunteth not a religion which has been for nineteen itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave centuries that of the highest civilisation itself anscemly, seeketh not her own, is and purest morality, and for this reason not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; alone they deserve the most roverent rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoicethin treatment and the most careful conthe truth; beareth all things, helieveth sideration. all things, hopeth all things, endureth all Of a large class of theso miracles it things." may be said that there is no reason to This is in the true spirit of modern doubt them, but none to consider them as thought, which, when the externals of violations of law, or anything but the religion fail, strives to look below them expression, in the language of the time, At its essence, and to retain what is of natural effects and natural cau846. eternally true and beautiful as the ideal When a large class of maladies wero of a spiritual and the guide of a practi- universally attributed to the agency of cal life, while rejecting all the outward evil spirits which had taken possession of apparatus of metaphysical creeds and the patient's body, it was inevitable thut ·94 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT many cures would be effected, and that original water and were not put into it these cures would be set down as the from without. casting-out of devils. In many cases also Again, those who have followed the a strong impulse communicated to the question of spontaneous generation, and brain may send a current along a nerve witnessed the failure of the ablest which may temporarily, or even perchemists to produce the lowest forms of manently, restoro motion to a paralysed protoplasmic life from inorganic eleliinb, or give fresh vitality to a paralysed ments, will hardly believe that such a nerve. Thus, the lame may walk, the highly organised form of life as a serpent dumb speak, and the blind see, with no could have been really produced from a more occasion to invoke supernatural wooden rod. And this, be it observed, agency than if the same effects had been not only by Moses the prophet of God, produced by a current of electricity from but by the jugglers who amused the a voltaic battery. There is no reason to court of Pharaoh by their conjuring doubt that miracles of this sort have been tricks; and for an object of no greater frequently wrought by saints and relics, moment than to persuade a king to allow and that even at the present day they some of his subjects to emigrate, which may possibly be wrought at Lourdes and object, moreover, notwithstanding the otlicr shrines of Catholic faith. Only at miracle, entirely failed, as the king the present day we scrutinise the evi simply "hardened his heart” and perdence and count the failures, and admit sisted in his refusal. nothing to be supernatural which can be But passing from this class of grotesque explained as within il fair average result and incredible miracles, let us examine of exceptional cases under the operation those which may be called worthy of natural laws. In like manner we set miracles; that is, miracles disfigured by down all visions or apparitions as having no absurd details, and wrought for obno objective reality if they can be ex jects of sufficient importance to justify plained by the known laws of dreams or supernatural interference, if ever such other vivid revivals of impressions, on the interference were to take place. At the brain of the person who perceives them. head of such miracles must undoubtedly There remains the class of really super be placed those of the Resurrection of natural iniracles, or wiracles which could Jesus. The appearances to the Apostles, by no possibility have occurred as they and above all the bodily Ascension to are described, unless some outward agency heaven in the presence of more than 500 had suspended or reversed the laws of witnesses, were a fitting termination to Nature. As regards such miracles, a the drama of his life and sufferings, and knowledge of these laws enormously in afforded a conclusive test of the fact creases the difficulty in believing in them which was the foundation-stone of the as actual facts. Take for instance the new religion. conversion of water into wine. When “If Christ be not risen, then is our nothing was known of the constitution preaching vain," says St. Paul; and he of water or of wine, except that they proceeds to argue that the whole queswere both fluids, it was comparatively tion of the reality of a future life hinges easy to accept the staternent that such a on the fact that Christ really rose from conversion really took place. But now the dead. His theory is that death came we know that water consists of oxygen into the world by the sin of the first and hydrogen combined in a certain man, Adain, and has been destroyed and simple proportion, and of these and swallowed up in iinmortality by the nothing else ; while wine contains in victory of the second man, Christ. This addition nitrogen, carbon, and other ele theory has, from that day to this, been ments combined in very compplicated the key-stone of Christian theology, proportions. If the water was not really There can be no doubt, therefore, that changed into wine, but only seemed to if any miracle is true this must be the be so, it was a mere juggling trick, such one, and, on the other hand, if this FL8 the Wizard of the North can show us mirable cannot be established by suffiany day for a shilling. But if it was cient proof, it is idle to discuss the evireally changed, something must have dence for other miracles. In order to go been created out of nothing to supply tn the root of the matter therefore, it the elements which were not in the is necessary to consider, in a calm and ·MIRACLES 95 judicial spirit, the evidence upon which up by modern science made it more diffithis miracle of the Resurrection really cult to believe in miracles, and more rests. exacting in the demand for stronger evi- In the first place we, must consider dence to support them, the old evidence what sort of evidence is required to prove became greatly weakened. The main evia miracle. Clearly it must be evidence dence which satisfied our forefathers was of the most cogent and unimpeachable that the Bible was inspirerl, and that it character, far more conclusive than would asserted the reality of the miracles. This, be sufficient to establish an ordinary when crítically examined, was really nó occurrence. The discoveries of modern evidence at all, for how did we know that science have shown beyond the possi the Bible was inspired ? Because it was bility of doubt that the miracles which proved to be so by miracles. The arguformer ages fancied they saw around ment was therefore in a circle, and rethem every day had no real existence, sembled that of the Hindoo mythology, and that, except possibly in the solitary which rested the earth on an elephant instance of the Christian miracles, there and the elephant on a tortoise. But what has been no supernatural interference did the tortoise rest on ? with the laws of Nature throughout the To examine the matter more closely, enormous ranges of space, time, and what is the meaning of inspiration! It matter. It may be going too far to say means that a certain book was not with Hume that no amount of evidence written, as all other books in the world can prove a miracle, since it must always have been written, by writers who wore remain more probable that human testi fallible, and whose statements and opimony should be false than that the laws nions, however admirable in the main of Nature should have been violated. and made in perfect good faith, inevit- But it is not going too far to say that ably reflected the views of the age in the evidence to establish such a viola which they lived and containeel matters tion must be altogether overwhelming which subsequent ages found to be and open to no other possible construc obsolete or erroneous, but that this tion, particular book was miraculously dic- Consider, now, the significance of the tated by an infallible God, and therestatement that a dead man rose in the fore absolutely and for all time true. body from the grave, ate, drank, and But, as a chain cannot be stronger than held intercoyrse with living persons. its weakest link, if any one of these There are some 1,500 millions of human statements was proved not to be true, the beings living in the world, and somewhat theory of inspiration failed, and human more than three generations in each reason was called on to decide by the century, that is, there are some 3,600 ordinary methods, whether any, and if millions of deaths per century, and this any, what parts of the volume were has been going on for soine forty or fifty inspired and what uninspired. centuries, or longer. It is certain, there Now it is absolutely certain that fore, that at least 150,000 millions of portions of the Bible, and those importdeaths must have taken place, and a ant portions relating to the creation of large proportion of these under circum the world and of man, are not true, and stances involving the most heart-rending therefore not inspired. It is certain that separations, and the most intense longing the sun, moon, stars, and earth, were not on the part of the dying to give, and of the created as the author of Genesis supposed living to receive, some token of affection them to have been created, and that the froin beyond the grave. And yet no such first man, whose Palæolithic implements token has ever been given, and the veil are found in cives and river gravels of which separates the dead from the living inmense antiquity, was a very different has never been lifted, except possibly in being from the Adam who was created in one case out of this 150,000,000,000. Surely God's likeness and placed in the Garden it must require very different evidence of Eden. It is certain that no universal to establish the reality of such an excep deluge ever took place since man existed, tion, from that which would be sufficient and that the animal life existing in the to prove the signature to a will or the world, and shown by fossil remains to date of a battle. have existed for untold ages, could by no But just when the new views opened possibility have originated from pairs of ·98 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT 66 animals living together for forty days in others as a proof of inspiration, for it is the ark. perfectly distinct and definite, and comes Another test of inspiration is afforded from the highest authority-that of the by the presence of contradictions. If approaching end of the world contained one writer says that certain events in the New Testament. occurred in Galilee, while another says St. Matthew reports Jesus to have said: that they took place at Jerusalem, they For the Son of man shall come in the cannot both be inspired. They may be glory of his Father with his angels; and both reininiscences of real events, but then he shall reward every man according they are obviously imperfect and not in to his works. spired reminiscences, and require to be “Verily I say unto you, There be some tested by the same process of reasoning standing here, which shall not taste of as we should apply in endeavouring to death, till they see the Son of man coming unravel the truth from the confused in his kingdom.” and contradictory evidence of conflicting It is certain that all standing there did historians. taste death without seeing the Son of Inspiration is clearly as much a miracle Man coming with his angels. The conas any of the miracles which it relates, clusion is irresistible, that either Jesus and there is only one way conceivable by was mistaken in speaking these words, which it could be proved, so as to afford or else Matthew was mistaken in supa solid basis for faith and give addi posing that he spoke them. tional evidence in support of the super St. Paul predicts the same event in natural occurrences said to have taken still more definite terms. He says: place; that would be if it carried with “For this we siły unto you by the it internal evidence of its truth. Such word of the Lord, that we which are ovidence might be afforded in one alive and remain unto the coming of the way, and in one only-by prophecy. If Lord shall not prevent them which ure any volume written many centuries ago asleep contained a clear, definite, and distinct "For the Lord himself shall descend prophecy of future events, which the from heaven with a shout, with the voice writer could by no possibility have known of the archangel, and with the trump of or conjectured, such a prophecy must God; and the dead in Christ'shall rise have been dictated by some agency first: different from anything known in the “Then we which are alive and remain ordinary course of nature; and future shall be caught up together with them ages, seeing tho fulfilment of the pro in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the phecy, could scarcely doubt that the air." volume which contained it was inspired. Here is the most distinct prediction But such a prophecy must be quite de possible, both of the event which was to linite, so that there could be no doubt as happen, and of the limit of time within to whether it had been fulblled or not, which it was to take place; and, to give and inust not consist of vague and mystic it additional force, it is specially deutterances, in which future believers clared to be an inspired prophecy uttered might find meanings, probably never as “the word of God." thought of by the prophets themselves, The time is distinctly stated to be in confirming the faith which, from other the lifetime of some of the existing considerations, they thought it a sin to generation, including Paul himself, who disbelieve. Nor must it consist of pas is to be one of the “ we which are alive," sionate aspirations for deliverance, and who are not to "prevent," or gain any predictions of the downfall of cruel con precedence over, those who have fallen querors, wrung from the hearts of an asleep," or' died, in the interval before oppressed people in times of imminent Christ's coming. By no possibility can danger and crushing despair; because this be construcd to mean a coming at such predictions have been partly veri some indefinite future time, long after all fied and partly transformed in future those had died who were to remain and ages, so as to receive a new and spiritual be caught up alive into the clouds. St. significance. Paul doubtless meant what he said, and There is one prophecy which affords a firmly believed that he was uttering an test by which to judge of the value of all inspired prophecy which would certainly ·MIRACLES 97 some be fulfilled. But it is certain that it was evidence that the appearances described not fulfilled. Paul and all Paul's con by St. Paul were currently believed in temporaries have been dead for 1,800 the circle of early Christians at Jerusalenı years, and the shout, the voice of the within twenty years of their alleged archangel, and the trump of God, have occurrence. never been heard. What is this but an This is strong testimony, but it is absolutely irresistible demonstration that weakened by several considerations. In prophecy not only fails to prove inspira the first place, we know that Paul's tion, but, on the contrary, by its failure frame of mind in regard to iniracles was disproves it, and shows that St. Matthew such as to make it certain that he would and St. Paul were as liable to make mis take them for granted, and not attempt takes as any of the hundreds of religious to examine critically the evidence on writers who, in later times, have prophe which they were founded, and this was sied the approaching end of the world or doubtless the frame of mind of those advent of the millennium. from whom he received the accounts. Turning to the evidence for miracles, Again, he places all the appearances on this must be taken on its own merits, the same footing as that to himself, without aid from any preconceived theory which was clearly of the nature of a that it is sinful to scrutinise it because vision, or strong internal impression, the books in which it is contained are rather than of an objective reality. inspired. Applying to it impartially the Upon this vital point, whether the ordinary rules of evidence, let us see appearances which led to the belief in what it amounts to for that which is Christ's resurrection were subjective or really the test case of all other miracles, objective--that is, were visions or phythat of the Resurrection. sical realities-- Paul's testimony therefore The witnesses are St. Paul and the favours the former view, which is quite Authors of the four Gospels according to consistent with the laws of Nature and St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. with experience in other cases. John. Of these, St. Paul is in And hnally, St. Paul's account of the respects the best. When a witness is appearances is altogether different froin called into court to give evidence, the those of the other witnesses, viz., the four first question asked is, “Who are you? Evangelists. Give your name and description.” St. When we come to consider the testi- Paul alone gives to clear answer to this mony of the four Gospels we are conquestion. There is no doubt that he was fronted by a first difficulty : Who and an historical personage, who lived at what are the witnesses? What is really the time and in the manner described in kuown of them is this : Until the middle the Acts of the Apostles, and that the of the second century they are never Epistlo to the Corinthians is a genuine quoted, and were apparently unknown. letter written by him. In this Epistle Somewhere about 150 A.D., for the exact date is hotly disputed, we find the first "For I delivered unto you first of all quotations from them, and from that that which I also received, how that time forwards the quotations become Christ died for our sins according to the more frequent and their authority inscriptures; creases, until finally they superseded all “And that he was buried, and that he the other narratives current in the early rose agnin the third day according to the Church, such as the “Gospel of the scriptures : Hebrews," and the "Pastor" of Hermas, And that he was seen of Cephas, then and are embodied in the New Testament of the twelve : From the earliest time where After that, he was seen of above five there is any distinct recognition of them, hundred brethren at once; of whom the they appear to have been attributed to greuter part remain unto this present, but the Evangelists whose names they bear, some are fallen asleep. viz., Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. After that, he was seen of fames; When we look to internal evidence to then of all the apostles. give us some further clue as to their "And last of all he was seen of me also, authorshipand date, we at once meet with 9,8 of one born out of due time.' a great difficulty. The three Gospels of This is undoubtedly very distinct SS. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are called he says: canon.

·98 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT "Synoptic," because they give what is substantially the same narrative of the same facts arranged in the same order, and the same sayings and parables giving the same view of the character and teaching of Jesus. In whole passages this resemblance is not merely substantial but literal, so that we cannot suppose it to arise merely froin following the same oral tradition, and cannot doubt that the authors must have copied verbatim either from one another or from some cominon manuscript. But then comes in this perplexing circumstance. After passitges of almost literal identity we have statements which are inconsistent with those of the other Gospels, and narratives of important events which are either altogether wanting or quite differently described in thein. Thus, in the vital matter of the Resurrection, Matthew says that the disciples were especially commanded to go into Galilee; there shall you see him," and that they did go accordingly, and there saw Jesus on a mountain where he had appointed them to meet him ; while Luke distinctly says that "he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, "and describes them is remaining there and witnessing a number of appearances, including the crowning miracle of the Ascension (the same, doubtless, as that which St. Paul describes as having taken place in the presence of more than 500 witnesses), of which Matthew, Mark, and John apparently know nothing. And yet the final injunction of Jesus to preach the gospel in his name to all nations is given in almost the same words in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, showing that they must have had before them some common tradition describing the course of events ifter the Crucifixion. So in minor matters, Mark mentions the cure of one blind man, Bartimæus, who sat by the roadside begging; in Matthew there are two blind men, and yet the dialogue that passed-“What will ye that I shall do unto you?” • Lord, that our eyes may be opened ”-is almost word for word the same. It would seem that if they did copy from an original manuscript, they felt themselves free to take any liberties with it they liked, in the way of omission and alteration. The only light thrown on this perplexing question of the origin of the Gospels is that atforded by the celebrated passage from Papias quoted by Eusebius. Papias was Bishop of Hieropolis, in Asia Minor, and suffered martyrdom, when an aged man, about the year 164.' He was therefore brought-up in personal contact, not with the Apostles themselves, but with those who, like Polycarp and others, had been their immediate disciples, and had known and conversed with them. In the passage quoted he states his preference for oral tradition over written documents, and his reasons for it. He says: “If I found some one who had followed the first presbyters, I. asked him what he had heard from them; whirt said Andrew or Peter, or Philip, Thomas, James, John, or Matthow; and whatsaid Andrew and John the Presbyter, who were also disciples of the Lord; for I thought I could not derive as much advantage from books as from the living and abiding oral tradition." And he goes on to give his reasons for not attaching moro weight to the two written sources of information which were evidently best known and looked upon as of most authority in his time, viz., the Gospels according to St. Matthew and St. Mark. He says that Matthew wrote down in Hebrew the Login, or principal sayings and discourses of the Lord," which every one translated as lie best could," evidently implying that these numerous translations were, in his opinion, loose, inaccurate, and unreliable. As regards Mark, he says that “Mark, who had not known the Lord personally, and had nerer heard Him, followed Peter later as his interpreter; and when Peter, in the course of his teaching, mentioned any of the doings or sayings of Christ, took care to note them down exactly, but without any order, and without making a continuous narrative of the discourses of the Lord, which did not enter into the irtention of the Apostle. Thus Mark let nothing pass, jotting down a certain number of facts as Peter mentioned them, but having no other care than to omit nothing of what he heard, and to change nothing in it." This testimony of Papias is very valu. able and very instructive. In the tirse place, it seems conclusive that the Gospel of St. Sohn was not known to him, and not received in the early Christian Churches of Asia Minor as a work of authority. Had it been so received, Papias must have known of it, brought ·MADU PUBLIC LIBRART . MIRACLES 99 up as he was at the feet of men who had writton in Hebrew by Matthew. These been John's disciples, and bishop of a have been worked up subsequently, at Church closely connected with those of unknown dates, and by unknown authors, which, if there is any faith in tradition, aided possibly by oral traditions, into John had been the patriarch and principal connected narratives or biographies of founder. And if he had known of such the life and teachings of the Founder of a written Gospel as that of St. John, and the religion. believed it to have been really written Possibly, though by no means certainly, by the “beloved disciple;" the Apostle we have in the present Gospel according second only, if second, to St. Peter; it is to St. Matthew the nearest approach to inconceivable that he should have ex the original Login or doctrinal discourses, pressed such an unqualified preference and in the present Mark the nearest for oral tradition, and made such an approach to the original notes recorded almost contemptuous reference to written by Mark from the dictation of St. Peter. documents. He must have said: “For, As regards the Gospel according to St. with the exception of the Gospel of the John, it appears perfectly clear, both blessed John, I found that little was to be from the silence of Papias, the absence got from books." of any reference to it by other carly It seems clear, therefore, that although Christian Fathers until the end of the the Gospel of St. John may contain second century, and still more from genuine reminiscences of an early date, internal evidence, that it could not and possibly some which really came possibly have been written by the from the Apostle himself, the work in its Apostle whose name it bearz. John, s present form could not have been written we know from St. Paul's Epistles, was by him, and must have been compiled at one of the pillars of the Christian Church such a late date as to have been unknown of Jerusalem, whose doctrine was in a in the Christian Churches of the East in respects Hebraic, and who opposed the the time of Papias. larger idea that a man could be The same remark applies to the Christian without first becoming a Jew Gospel of St. Luke, of which Papias has The writer of the Gospel is not on equally no knowledge, and which, from ignorant of matters which must have internal evidence, appears to le a later been well known to every Jew, but he 18 edition of the two earlier Cospels, or of positively prejudiced against Judaism the original nanuscripts from which they and represents it in an unfavourabló were taken, altered in places to meet light. His narrative of the events of the objections of a later date, as where the life of Jesus, including the miracles, is injunction to " go into Galilee; there totally different from that of the Synopshall ye see him," is changed into "as he tics, and his view of his character and spake unto you when he was yet in report of his speeches wide as the poles Galilee," obviously to reconcile the state asunder. To the Synoptics Jesus is the ment with the subsequent belief that the man-Messiah foretold by the prophets ; to Ascension took place at Jerusalem. the author of John he is the "Logos," There remain the two original Cospels the incarnation of a metaphysical attri. according to St. Matthew and St. Mark. bute of the Deity. Volumes of erudition have been written The terse and simple clearness of his to try and reconcile them with one sayings recorded by the first, is exchanged another, and with the other two Gospels, in the latter for an involved and cumbrous and to explain the extraordinary resem phraseology reminding one of a Papal blances and no less extraordinary differ Encyclical. The amiablity and "sweet ences. Translations have been heaped on reasonableness" of the Jesus of the translations, and successive editions and Synoptics, have become acrimonious unrevisions piled on one another until the reasonableness and egotistical self-glori. edifice toppled over by its own weight, but fication in many of the long harangues after all, we have nothing better to rely on which are introduced on the most than the statement of Papias, which there unlikely occasions in the fourth Gospel. is no reason to mistrust. The basis of the It is evident, therefore, that this three Synoptic Gospels was probably & Gospel can afford no aid towards a collection of facts and anecdotes written critical examination of contemporary .down in Greek by Mark, and of discourses evidence, and that for this we must look Coin ·100 MODERN SOIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT almost entirely to such remains of early St. Luke, again, in his Cospel and Acte, records as are preserved in the Gospels of amplifies the miraculous appeurances St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke. almost up to the extent described by With these data, how does the evidence St. Paul, though with considerable dit. stand as regards the miracle of the ferences both of addition and omission. Resurrection which is the test case of all The three women become a number of alleged miracles ? women ; the one angel or young nan It is important to observe that the in shining clothes, two; the appearance oldest manuscripts of the Gospel of St. to the women disappears; "Peter is Mark stop at the 8th verse of the last mentioned as running to the scpulchre chapter, and that the subsequent verses, but departing without seeing anything 9-20, have every appearance of being special except that the body had been a later addition made to reconcile this removed; the first appearance recorded Gospel better with the prevailing belief is that to the two disciples walking and with the other Gospels. Comment from Emmaus, who knew him not until ators discover a difference in the style their eyes were opened by the breaking and language, and the appearances of of bread, when he vanished; the next Jesus after his resurrection are described appearance is to the eleven sitting at in vague and general language, very meat with closed doors; and finally different from the distinct details given there is the crowning miracle of the of them in the other Gospels, and in Ascension, stated somewhat vaguely in consistent with the formal statement the Gospel, but with more detail in the twice repeated in the genuine Mark Acts, describing how he was taken up that they were to take place in Galilee. to heaven and received in a cloud, in Moreover, if these versos were really in the sight of numerous witnesses. This the original Cospel, it is inconceivable is probably the same miracle as that how they should have dropped-out in mentioned by St. Paul as having occurred the oldest manuscripts, while it is per in the presence of “ more than five hunfectly conceivable how they should have dred brethren at once, of whom the been added at a later period, when the greater part remain alive unto this Fathers of the Church began to occupy present;" though he inentions two subthemselves with the task of harmonising sequent appearances--one to James and the different Gospels. a second to all the Apostles-of which But if the genuine Mark really termin no trace is found in any other canonical ated with tlie &th verse, not only is there narative. It is to be noted that all St. no confirmation of the four miraculous Luke's miracles are expressly stated to appearances, including the Ascension, have occurred at Jerusalemn, where Jesus recorded by St. Paul as being currently had commanded his disciples to remain, believed by the early Christians within and are, therefore, in direct contradictwenty years of their occurrence, but tion with the statements of Matthew there is positively no mention of any ap; and Mark, that whatever occurred was pearance at all. A young man, clothed in Galilee, where the disciples were exin white, tells three women who went pressly enjoined to go. to the tomb that Jesus is risen, and that When we come to St. John, we find they were to tell his disciples and Peter the first part of the narrative of the that they would see him in Galilee; an other Gospels repeated with several injunction which was not carried out, for variations and a great niany additional the women "were afraid, neither said they details. Many Magdalene is alone, and anything to any man. finds the stone removed from the sepul- In St. Matthew the young man has be chre. She tells Peter and John, who come an angel, and as the woinen return run together to the tomb; John outruns fr Jesus met them and said, Peter, but i'eter first enters and sees the "All hail," repeating the injunction to napkin and linen grave-clothes, but tell the disciples to go into Galilee, where nothing miraculous, and they return to the eleven accordingly went into a moun their homes. Mary remains weeping and tain where Jesus had appointed them, sees, first two angels, and then Jesus himand "when they saw him they worshipped self, whom she at first does not recognise, him: but some doubted." This is the and mistakes for the gardener. The walk whole of Matthew's testimony. to Emmaus is not mentioned, and the ·MIRAOLES 101 or next appearance is to the disciples sitting entered the city in triumphal procession with closed doors. Another takes place amidst the acolamations of the multiafter eight days, for the purpose of con tude, and who, a few days afterwards, vincing Thomas of the reality of the by somo sudden revolution of popular resurrection in the actual body, and here feeling, had become the object of mob. Apparently the narrative closes with the hatred'; who had been solemnly tried, appropriate ending, “That these things condemned, and executed ; that this are written that ye may believe that prophet had been restored to life and Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and visibly translated in the body to that believing ye might have life through heaven in the presence of more than 500 his name." But a supplementary chapter witnesses,, must inevitably have caused is added, describing a miraculous draught an immense sensation. However prone of fishes and appearance to Peter, John, the age might be to believe in miracles, and five other disciples at the Sea of such a miracle as this must have startled Tiberias in Galilee, in which the com every one. The most incredulous must mand is given to Peter to “Feed my have been converted; the High Priest sheep," and an explanation is introduced and Pharisees must, in self-defence, have of what was doubtless a sore perplexity instituted a rigid inquiry; the Proconsul to the early Christian world, the death must have reported to Rome ; Josephus, of St. John before the corning of the who, not many years afterwards, wrote Messiah. the annals of the Jews during this These are the depositions of the five period with considerable detail, must witnesses, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, have known of the occurrence and menand Paul,' in which the verdict" proven tioned it. not proven" must rest in regard to And above all, Matthew, Mark, and the issue" miracle" or no miracle.' John must have been aware of the oc- The mere stitement of them is enough currence; and in all probability, Matto show how insufficient they are to thew, John, and Peter, from whom Mark establish any ordinary fact, to say nothing derived his information, must have been of a fact so entirely opposed to all ex among the 500 eye-witnesses. How then perience as the return to life of one who is it possible that, if the event really had really died. Suppose it were a occurred, they not only should not have question of proving the signature of a mentioned it, but partly by their silence, will, what chance would a plaintiff have and partly by their statement that they of obtaining a verdict who produced went into Galilee, have virtually contrafive witnesses, four of whom could give dicted it. The Ascension, if true, was a no certain account of themselves, while capital fact, 1100 only crowning and comthe fifth spoke only from hearsay, and pleting the drama of Christ's life which the details to which they deposed were they were narrating with its most trihopelessly inconsistent with one another umphant and appropriate ending, but as regards time, place, and other par confirming, in the strongest possible ticulars ? The account of the Ascension manner, the doctrine for which they were brings this contradiction into the most contending, that he was not an ordinglaring light. According to St. Luke and ary man or ordinary prophet, but the St. Paul this miracle took place at Jeru Messiah, the Son of God, who had salem, in the presence of a large number, redeemed the world from its original St. Paul says 'over 500 persons, before curse and conquered sin and death. whose eyes Jesus was lifted-up in the One might as well suppose that any body into the clouds, and more than half, one writing the life of Wellington or over 250 of these witnesses, remained would omit the Battle of Waterloo as alive for at least twenty years afterwards that any one writing the life of Christ to testify to the fact. Consider what this would knowingly and wilfully omit all implies. Such event occurring mention of the Ascension. It must be publicly in the presence of 590 wit evident that whoever wrote the original nesses is not like an appearance to a manuscripts from which the Gospels of few chosen disciples in a room with Matthew, Mark, and John were compiled, closed doors : it must have been the talk must either never have heard of the of all Jerusalem. Ascension, or having heard of it did not The prophet who had shortly before believe it to be true. This must also an ·102 MODERN SCIENOE AND MODERN THOUGHT apply to the other miraculous appear sons, there is no instance of any stateances said to have occurred at Jerusalem. ment by any credible person that he How was it possible for writers who knew had himself worked & real miracle. St. of them to make no mention of them, Augustine describes in detail many wodand virtually contradict them by assert derful miracles, including resurrections ing that they did not remain at Jeru from the dead, which he said had been salem, but went to Galilee in obedience Wrought to his own knowledge, within to a command to that effect, and that his own diocese of Hippo, by the relics the final parting of Jesus from his dis of the martyr Stephen. In fact, he says ciples took place there? that the muniber of miracles thus wrought The most unaccountable fact is the within the last two years since these total silence of Mark, who wis nearest relics had been at Hippo, was at least the fountain-head if he derived his infor seventy. This testimony is far more nation from St. Peter, as to these mira precise than any for the Gospel miracles, culous appearances. If his Gospel ended for it coines from a well-known man of with verse 8 of chapter xvi., as the oldest high character, who was on the spot at manuscripts and the internal evidence the time, and speaks of these and inany of the postscripts afterwards added other miracles having occurred to his appear to prove, there is absolutely no own knowledge. But he never asserts that statement of any such appearance at all. he himself had ever wrought a miracle. Nothing is said but that three women In like manner Paulinus relates many found the tomb empty and saw a young miracles of his master, St. Ambrose, inman clothed in white, who told them cluding one of raising the dead; but that Jesus had risen and gone into Ambrose himself never asserts that he Galilee. Now, if there is one fact more performed a miracle. Neither docs St. certain than another about miraculous Francis of Assisi, or any of the 25,000 legends, it is that is long as they have saints of the Roman calendar to whom any vitality at all, they increase and miracles are attributed. multiply and do not dwindle and dimi Even Jesus himself seems, on several nish. We have an excellent example of occasions, to have disclaimed the power this in the way in which a whole cycle of of working miracles, as when he refused miracles grew up in a short time about to comply with the perfectly reasonable the central fact of the martyrdom of St. request of the Jews to attest his Mes- Thomas à Becket. siahship, by a sign, if he wished them to If, therefore, Matthew and Mark knew believe in it. nothing of the series of miracles, which There is every reason, therefore, to from St. Paul's statement we must assume believe that when we find narratives to have been currently believed by the making no mention of important miracles early Christians twenty ycars after the which were afterwards cominonly redeath of Christ, the only possible ex ceived, they must be taken from records planation is that their Gospels were com of an earlier date, and proceeding directly piled from narratives which had been from those who, if the miracles were true, written at a still earlier date, before these would have been the principal eye-witmiracles had been heard of. nesses to vouch for them. But, if this be We must suppose that Mark really so, how neitr to the fountain head do wrote down what lie heard froin Peter, these narratives carry us? We lose the and that Peter, being a truthful man, miracles, but in conipensation we get though he probably had a sincere general what may be considered fresh and lively belief that Christ had risen, declined to narratives of the life and conversation state facts which he knew had never of Jesus, and confirmation both of his occurred. This is in entire accordance being an historical personage, and of the with what we find in the whole history many anecdotes and sayings which deof ecclesiastical miracles, from those pict his chåracter, and bring him before recorded in Scripture down to those us as he really lived. The mythical of St. Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth theory cannot stand which found in every century, and of St. Francis Xavier in the saying and action an er pinst facto atteinpt sixteenth. Innumerable as are the ac to show that he fulüilled prophecies and oounts of miracles said to have been realised Messianic expectations. We can wrought by relics or by other holy per see hin walking through the fields on's ·MIRACLES 103 A Sabbath afternoon with his disciples, mind that while portions of the original plucking ears of corn, and rebuking the narrative appear to carry us back very Pharisees for their puritanical adherence near to the fountain-head, a large part to the letter of the observance of that of the Gospels in their present form is day, we can see him taking little evidently of much later date and of unchildren in his arms, and talking fami certain origin. It is clear that Papias, liarly at the well with the woman of writing about the year 150, knew nothing Samarima; we can hear him preaching the of the Gospels of Luke and John, and Sermon on the Mount, and dropping nothing of those of Matthew and Mark parables from his mouth, like precious in their present form. The discourses of pearls of instruction in love, charity, and Matthew and the disconnected notes of all Christian virtues. We can sympathise Mark, to which he refers, were something with the agony in the garden as with a very different from the complete histories real scene, and hear the despairing cry, of the life and teaching of Jesus con- "My God, my God, why hast thou for tained in the present Gospels. It is saken me?" equally clear that Justin Martyr and It seems to me that faith in the reality Hegesippus, who wrote about the middle of scenes like these is worth a good deal of the second century, and made frequent of faith in the metaphysical conundrums quotations of the sayings and doings of of the Athanasian Creed, or in the actual the Lord, made them, not from the preoccurrence of incredible miracles. sent canonical Gospels, but from other Another argument in favour of the sources relating the same things in difearly date and genuino character of the ferent order and different language. primitive records which have been worked Gospel according to the Hebrews" and up in the Synoptic Gospels, is afforded by “Memoirs of the Apostles " seem to lave the sayings attributed to Jesus. It is been the principal sources from which impossible to imagine that these could be they quoted. the invention of a later age, when theo It is evident however, that during tlie logical questions of faith and doctrine first two centuries there were a great had absorbed almost the entire attention number of so-called Gospels and Aposof the Christian world. We have already tolic writings Boating about in the seen howo wide is the difference, both as Christian world along with oral tradiregards style and phase of thought, be tions. The author of Luke tolls us this tween the discourses reported in the expressly, and later writers refer to a fourth Gospel and those of the Synopties. number of works now unknown or classed No one writing in the second or towards as apocryphal, and coinplain of forged the end of the first century, or even Gospels circulated by heretics. None of earlier in the religious atmosphere of St. these writings, however, seem to have Paul's Epistles, could have composed the had any peculiar authority or been con- Sermon on the Mount or the Lord's sidered as inspired Scripture, which term Prayer. The parables and maxims, in is exclusively confined to the Old Testastead of teaching nothing but a pure and ment, until the middle of the second sublime morality in simple language, century. must have contained references to the At length, by a sort of law of the doctrino of the Logos, and the disputes survival of the tittest, the present Gospels between the Jewish and the Gentile acquired an increasing authority and Christians. Even if these discourses had superseded the other works which hid passed long through the fluctuating competed with them; but the selection mcdium of oral tradition, they must, was deterzained to a great extent, not by when finally reduced to writing, have those principles of criticism which would shown many traces of the theological now be applied to historical records, but questions which agitated the Christian by• doctrinal considerations of the supworld. The only explanation is that port they gave to prevalent opinions. In Apostles like St. Matthew, and St, Peter other words, orthodoxy and not authenthrough Mark, feally recorded these say. ticity was the test applied, and it is proings in writing while they were fresh in bable that no Christian Father of the memory, and that their authority secured second or third century would have hesithem from adulteration. tated to reject an early manuscript trace- At the same time it must be borno in able very clearly to an Apostle, in favour ·104 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT . of a later compilation of doubtful origin, if the former contained passages which seemed to favour hereticalviews, while the latter omitted those passages, or altered them in a sense favourable to orthodoxy. To sum up the matter, it appears that apart from the fact that the antecedent improbability of miracles has been enormously increased by the constant and concurrent proofs of the permanence of the laws of Nature, the evidence for those recorded in the New Testament, with which alone we are concerned, is rendered null and void by the discordant reports of hearsay witnesses. CHAPTER IX CARISTIANITY WITHOUT MIRACLES Practical and Theoretical Christianity-Exumple and Teaching of Christ Christian Dogma -- Moral Objections -- Inconsistent with Facts-Must be accepted as Parables -l'all and Redemption--Old Creeds must he Transformed or Die Mahometanism-- Decay of Faith-Balance of Advantages — Religious Wars and Persecutions-Intoler. ance-Sacrifice-Prayer--Absence of Theology in Synoptic Gospels-Opposite Pole to Christianity Courage and Self-reliance Belief in God and a Future Life-Based mainly on Christianity-Science gives no Answer--Nor Metaphysics--So-called Intuitions-Development of Idea of God-- Best Proof afforded by Christianity-Evu. lution is Transforming it-Reconciliation of Religion and Science. CAN Christianity continue to exist without miracles ? To answer this question we must distinguish between practical and theoretical Christianity. The essence of practical Christianity consists in such a genuine acceptance of its moral teaching, and love and reverence for the life and character of its Founder, as may influence conduct, and be a guide and support in life. Theoretical Christianity is that which professes to teach & complete theory of the creation of the world and man, of the relations between man and his Creator, and of his position and destiny in a future state of existence. The former needs no miracles. The Sermon on the Mount, and St. Paul's description of Christian charity, carry their own proof with them, and such parables as that of the Good Samaritan require no support, either from historical evidence or from supernatural signs, to. come home to every heart whether in the first or in the nineteenth century. The fact that the son of a Jewish mechanic, born in a small town of an obscure province, without any special aid from position, education, or other outward circumstance, succeeded, by the sheer force of the purity and loveliness of his life and teaching, in captivating all hearts and founding a religion which for nineteen centuries has been the main civilising influence of the world and the faith of its noblest men and noblest races ; this fact, I say, is of itself so admirable and wonderful as not to require the aid of vulgar miracles and metaphysioal puzzles in order to be recognised as worthy of the highest reverence. And when such a life was crowned by a death which remains the highest type of what is noblest in man, self-sacrifice in the cause of truth and for the goocł of others, we may well call it divine, and not quarrel with any language or any forms of worship which tend to keep it in view and hold it up to the world as an inducement to a higher life. Miracles are not only unnecessary for a faith of this description, but are a positive hindrance to it. To put it at the lowest, miracles, in an age which has learned the laws of Nature, must always be open to grave doubts, and thus throw doubt on the reliability of the narratives which are supposed to depend on them. Moreover, the touching beauty and force of example of the life of Jesus are almost lost if he is evaporated into a sort of supernatural being, totally unlike any conceivable member of the human family. We may strive to model our conduct at a huinble distance on that of tho man Jesus, the carpenter's son, whose father and mother, brothers and sisters, were fiiniliar figures in the streets of Nazareth, but hardly on that of a "Logos," the incarnation of a metaphysical conception of an attribute of the Deity, who existed before all'worlds and by whom all things But, on the other hand, miracles are indispensable for the dogma, or theoretical side of Christian theology: Let us consider frankly what this dogma is, and how far it is true--that is, consistent or were made.

·OHRISTIANITY WITHOUT MIRACLES 105 curse. inconsistent with known and indisput merciful Father, to inflict such a punishable facts. ment on hundreds of millions of un- The Christian dogma cannot be better offending creatures for an act of disstated than in the words of St. Paul, who obedience on the part of a remote was its first inventor, or, at any rate, the ancestor. And it is still more incon. first by whom it was elaborated into a sistent with our modern ideas of justice complete theory. and humanity to require the vicarious “For as in Adam all dio, even so in sacrifice of an only Son as the condition Christ shall all be made alive." of forgiving the offence and removing the This may be expanded into the following propositions : Nevertheless it must be admitted that, 1. That the Old Testament is miracu notwithstanding these objections, and lously inspired, and contains i literally harsh as the theory is, it has had a true account of the creation of the world wonderful attraction for many of the and of man. highest intellects and noblest nations. 2. That, in accordance with this ac It was the creed of Luther, Cromwell, count, the material universe, earth, sun, and- Milton, and the inspiring spirit of moon, and stars, and all living things on Scotch Presbyterianism and English the earth and in the seas, were created in Puritanisın. It has inspired great men six days, after which God rested on the and great deeds, and although responsible seventh day. for a good deal of persecution and 3. That the first man, Adam, was fanaticism, it must always be spoken created in the image of God and after of with respect, as a creed which has had His own likeness, and placed, with the a powerful effect in raising men's minds first woman, Eve, in the Garden of Eden, from lower to higher things, and has on where they lived for a time in a state of the whole dove good work in its time. innocence, and holding familiar converse But the question of its continuance as with Goul. a creed which it is possible for sincero 4. That by an act of disobedience they men to believe, as literally and hisfell from this high state, were banished torically true, depends not on wishes and from the Garden, and sin and death were feelings, nor on reverence for the past, inflicted as a penalty on them and their but on hard facts. Is it or is it not condesceutlants. sistent with what are now known to be 5. That after long ages, during which the real truths respecting the constitumankind remained under this curse, God tion of the universe and the origin of sent His Son, who assumed human form, life and of man? and by His sacrifice on the cross appeased To state this question is to answer it. Cod's anger, removed the curse, and de There is hardly one of the facts shown in stroyed the last enemy, death, giving a the preceding chapters to be the unglorious resurrection and immortal life doubted results of modern science which - to those who believed on Him. does not shatter to pieces the whole This theory is a complete one, which fabric. It is as certain as that two and bangs together in all its parts, and of two make four that the world was not which no link can be displaced without created in the manner described in atlecting the others. It is the theory Genesis ; that the sun, moon, and stars which lias been accepted by the Christian are not lights placed in the firnament world since its first promulgation; and, or solid crystal vault of heaven to give although expounded with metaphysical light upon the earth; that animals were retinements in the Athanasian Creed, not all created in one or two days, and and set forth with all the gorgeous sur spread over the earth from a common roundings of poetical ininginntion in centre in Armenia, after having been Milton's " Paradise Lost," it reinains in sliut, up in pairs for forty days in an ark, substance St. Paul's theory, that “as in during a universal deluge. And finally, Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all that man is not descended from an Adam be made alive." created quite recently in God's image, It is obvious that this theory is open to and who fell from a high state by an act grave objections on moral grounds. It of disobedience, but from a long series of is more in the character of a jealous Paleolithic ancestors, extending back Vriental despot than of a loving and certainly into the Glacial and probably ·106 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT into the Tertiary period, who have not transcript of an actual conversation. fallen but progressod, and by a slow and But the moral is taught for all time, painful process of evolution have gradu that it is bad for the rich to indulge in ally developed intelligence, language, selfish luxury and take no thought of the arts, and civilisation, from the very mass of poverty and misery weltering rudest and most animal-like beginnings. around them; and that the condition of Belief in inspiration, the very key the poorest of the poor, borne with piety stone of the system, becomes impossible and resignation, may really be better when it is shown that the accounts given and higlier than that of the selfish rich. of such important inatters in the writings Apply the same principle to the dogma of professing to be inspired are manifestly thie fall and redemption, and we may see untrue; and when the ordinary rules of in it a parable of the highest meaning: criticism are brought to bear upon these Every one of us must be conscious of writings it is at once seen that they having fallen by yielding to temptation are compilations of diflerent ages from and giving way to animal passions. We various and uncertain sources. may have fallen so low that without The improbability of miracles is enor some redemption, or friendly influence mously increased by the proof of from without, we cannot raise ourselves the uniform operation of natural law from the lower level and regain our lost throughout the vast domains of space, place. We can see that there are thoustime, matter, and life; and where the ands round us, who, from poverty or supernatural was formerly considered to other adverse circumstances, have got be a matter of every-day occurrence, it immersed in evil conditions from which has vanished step by step, until only the it is hopeless to extricate themselves last vestige of it is left in a possible without friendly aid. We can sec also belief in some of the more important that there is nothing more noble and and impressive miracles of the Christian divine than to make sacrifices in order to dispensation. Even this faint belief is be the redeemer who saves as many souls manifestly founded more on reverence as possible from this entanglement of for tradition, and love of the religion evil, and gives them a chance of rising which the miracles are supposed to sup into a happier and better life. We may port, than on any dispassionate view of feel this, and use as an incentive to the evidence on which they rest. Tried attempt some humble imitation of it, by the ordinary rules of evidence, it is the parable which presents it to us in its apparent that it is contradictory and highest aspect, and has been' the efficient uncertain, and not such as would be ineans of stimulating so many good men sufficient to establish in a court of law to do good works. This is surely better any ordinary fact, such as the execution than paltering with the truth, and of a deed. it is apparent also that the enervating our conscience and intel. evidence for the most crucial and import ligence by professing to believe in the ant of all miracles, that of the Ascension, literal historical accuracy of things which is not nearly so precise and cogent as NOTE. --Since writing this chapter, I have that for a number of early Christian and mediæval wiracles which we reject seen with much pleasure an article entitled “Christmas," by Matthew Arnold, in a recent without hesitation. number of the Contemporary Review, which What follows? Must we reject these takes exactly the same view of the allegopical venerable trarlitions as old wives' fables ? or parabolic sense of miraculous narratives. I answer, No; but we can accept them Je takes the instance of the Immaculate as parables. Conception and Birth of Jesus, and shows A great deal of the best teaching of the that it was a myth which grew up, almost New Testament is conveyed in the form inevitably, from the strong impression inade of parables. Take for instance that of on the minds of early Christians by the idea Lazarus and Dives. No one supposés of purity set forth by the life and teaching of Jesus, which stood in such striking contrast that this is an historical narrative ; that this particular Jew, out of the millions with the corruption of the heathen world. The same idea led to a similar myth in the of poor and good Jews who have lived case of Gautama, the pure and self-sacrificing and died, was actually taken up into founder of the Buddhist religion, and it Abraham's hosom; and that the remark teaches an-eternal truth to all who can look able dialogue across the gulf is a literal below the letter to the spirit of the parable.

·CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT MIRACLES 107 have become incredible to all thinking imprisoned too closely within the limits and educated minds. Of course, I do not of a sacred book. Mahometanism, the mean that these dogmas and miraculous religion of one God and a succession of narratives were intended by the original prophets or great men who have taught writers to be parables, but only that they his doctrines, is not in theory inconhave become so to us and the alterna sistent with progress and civilisation. tive lies between rejecting them alto But Mahomet unfortunately wrote a gether or accepting them as having an book, the Koran, which, while it conallegorical meaning or latent truth, or, tained much that to the Arab mind was it may be added, as recording the state sublime and beautiful, was of necessity of intelligence and knowledge of the age impregnated with the ideas of the age which produced the stories. in which he lived ; an age of much At any rate, whether we like it or not, ignorance and superstition, of imperfect this is what we shall have to do, for the social arrangements, and of barbarous conclusions of science are irresistible, and ferocious manners. This book came and old forms of faith, however venerable to be accepted as the inspired word of and however endeared by a thousand Allah, which it was impious to question, associations, have no more chance in to which nothing could be added, and a collision with science than George from which nothing could be taken Stephenson's cow bad if it stood on the away. Hence Mahometanism has berails and tried to stop the progress of a coine what we see it a narrow and locomotive. It is not enough to say that fanatical creed, incompatible with proa thing is lovely and amiable, and that gress and free thought, and stereotyping its loss will leave a blank, to ensure its institutions, such as polygamy and continuance. The law of Nature is pro- slavery, which are fatal to any advance gress and not happiness. Stars, suns, towards a higher civilisation. From this planets, human individuals, and buman fate Christianity has been saved by the races have their periods of youth, fortunate circumstance that its sacred maturity, and decay, and are continually books are collections of a variety of being transformed into new phases. writings of different authors and different ages, reflecting such various and The old order changes, giving place to new, often conflicting phases of thought and And God fulfils Himself in many ways. belief that of necessity their interpretation was very elastic, and lent itself Childhood, with its innocence and readily to the changes required by the engaging ways, passes into the sterner spirit of successive periods and of difand more prosaic attributes of the grown ferent nationalities. Wherever for up man; fancy decays as reason ripens; time a system of infallibility was simple faith is replaced by larger know- forced, as in Spain by the Inquisition, ledge ; and the smooth brow of infancy Christianity became cruel, barbarous, becomes often marred by wrinkles of unprogressive, and really very little strife and suffering, impressed during the better than the religion of Islam, to more or less successful struggle in the which it closely approximated. Decay battle of life, and yet we could not if we of faith, therefore, in dogmatic Christiwould, and would not if we could, arrest anity is, like other great revolutions of the progress of Nature, and say that the thought, a question, not of absolute gain child shall never grow into a man. nor absolute loss, but of a balance between Such also is the fate of creeds. They conflicting advantages and disadvantages. must be transforined or die į and the The loss is evident enough, and is set best test of the vitality and intrinsic forth with much eloquence and force by truth of a religion is just that capacity the few remaining champions of orthofor transformation against which theo. doxy.. The simple, undoubting faith, lcgians exclaim as sacriloge. In this which has been for ages the support and respect Christianity has a great ad consolation of a large portion of mankind, vantage over other religions. The pious especially of the weak, the humble, and souls who are shocked at any denial of the unlearned, who form an immense the inspiration of Scripture may console majority, cannot disappear without a themselves by considering what has been painful wrench, and leaving, for a time, the fate of other religions which have been * great blank behind. But, on the other a en- ·108 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT we hand, there are a great many real and Athanasian Creed less, but we practise important advantages which have to be Christian charity more, in the present set on the credit side of the account. than in any fornier age. Intolerance is the shadow which dogs Another great advantage is that as the footsteps of faith, and in many cases freer thought has been brought to bear on more than obscures its benefits. When the mysteries of religion, we have purged we consider the mass of human misery off the grosser ideas, and arrived at much which has been occasioned by religious more enlarged and spiritual conceptions. wars and persecutions; as in tho ruth Take, for instance, prayer and sacrifice. less extirpation of the Albigenses ; the In its crude form, sacrifice was a sort of slaughtes of the saints bargain struck with an unseen Power, by which we hoped to obtain some favour whoso bunes which we greatly desired, in exchange Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; for giving up something, which the Thirty Years' War, which desolated greatly valued. This is the form in Germany and threw civilisation back for which sacrifice appears in the Old a century; the civil wars of France; the Testament, in Abrahim's offer to kill Spanish Inquisition; and a thousand his son Isaac, and in the record of the other instances of the baletul effects of Moabitish stone, how the king, when religious hatreds, we can almost sympabesieged in his capital, sacrificed his son, thise with those who pronounce religion and by so doing obtained the favour of his an invention of priests for the promotion God and defeated his enemies. In anof evil, and exclaim with the Roman other form, sacritice was considered as a poet : propitiation to appease the anger of an offended Deity, pictured as a sort of Religio tantum potuit suadere malorum. Oriental despot, who must have some one for a victim, and was not particular To this must be added the misery who it night be; and even in the caused by the belief in demonology and Christian dogma the merit of the sacrifice witchcraft, and the tortures inf is very closely analogous to that of the innumerable innocent victims by pre- Mayor of Calais who went out to King judices inspired by a literal construction Edward with a halter round his neck, of passages of the Old Testament. Nor ready to be hanged, so that he might save is it a small matter to have escaped from the lives of his fellow-citizens. the nightmare creams which must have Nowadays, no one think of sacrifice oppressed so many minds, especially of as anything but the sacrifice of lower the young and imaginative, in an age instincts and passing temptations to a when such a book as Dante's “ Inforno" higher ideal, and the voluntary recould be written, and accepted as a gleam nunciation of selfish ease and pleasure of prophetic insight into the horrors of for the good of others. the invisible world. In like manner, the original idea of Even in more recent and hunane times, intolerance remained as a general prayer was that of obtaining a request by Aattery or importunity, just as a mode of thought, inspiring hatred of courtier might do at the court of some those whose form of belief differed from earthly king of kings or sultan. It is that which was generally adopted. It is now spiritualised into the conception only within the present generation that that its etlect is entirely subjective; that true tolerance has come to be established it never really obtains any reversal of the as the law of modern thought, and that laws of Nature, but that it often exalts the men have learned to live together and mind to a frame in which things otherwise love one another, without reference to impossible become possible. A Gerinan intellectual differences of creed and docregiment marches to battle singing trine. Surely this is a great advantage, Luther's grand old hymnand we are nearer to the true spirit of Christianity than in the days when a Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. Birmingham mob sacked Priestley's house because he professed his belief in the Half the regin;ent may be freethinkers, saying of Jesus, that "my Father is but it is nevertheless true that they are greater than I." We may read the more likely to stand fion and win the ted on ·OHRISTIANITY WITHOUT MIRAOLES 109 victory if they chant the hymn, than if saying which has always improssed me they march in silence. greatly. An aged warrior, when asked Taking all these things into account, what he thought of the new religion, there is no reason to despair because the replied: "I have heard a great deal of talk irresistible progress of science has made us of the old Odin and of the new Christ, but whenever things have come to a real Falter where we firmly trod, pinch, I have always found that my surest trust was in my own right arm and changed a great deal of what was and good sword.” once fixed and certain faith into vague This strong self-reliance and hardy aspirations and loss definite, though courago to do or to endure is, beyond all larger and more spiritual, conceptions. doubt, the solid rock foundation upon There is next to no theology in the which the manly character of individuals Christianity of the Synoptic Gospels, and of nations must be built up. The which give us by far the nearest and softer virtues and graces which are to most authentic record of what its retine and adorn, and convert the man Founder actually taught ; and it may be into the gentle man, or one of Nature's that in sloughing-off the mythical legends true gentlemen, come afterwards. But and metaphysical dogmas which have without the harder gifts of courage and grown up around it, we shall be, in self-help, a man is not a man, and the reality, not banishing the Christian raw material is not there out of which to religion from the world, but making it fashion a Gordon or Christian hero. revert to its more simple and spiritual This may be called the Norse pole ancestral type, in which form all that is as contrasted with the pole of Chrisreally valuable in its pure and elevated tianity, and the perfect man is he who morality may be incorporated more can stand tirmly between the two opporeadily with practical life, and assimi- sites, controlling both while controlled lated without difficulty with the pro by neither. gressive evolution of modern thought While I have thought it right, however, and science. to call attention to this counter-pole to At the same time we must bear in Christianity, I should add that with the mind that even Christianity in its purest strong, practical Teutonic races there is form abes not escape from the universal not much danger of erring on the side of law of polarity, and presents, not the too much weakness, humility, or ascetiwhole trutit, but only one very important cism, and therefore the intluence of the side of truth. It is the religion of love, Christian religion makes mainly for good. purity, gentleness, and charity; im Modern civilisation has been formed, to portant virtues, but not all that con a great extent, by grafting the gentler stitute the perfection of men or nations. virtues of the Gospel on the robust In fact, if carried to the "falsehood of primitive stock of the barbarians who extremes," its very virtues become vices. overthrew Rome. It is the example and It would not work in practice, if smitten teaching of Jesus, the son of the caron one cheek to turn the other; and any penter of Nazareth, which have been one who attempted to follow literally the mainly instrumental in diffusing ideas of precept of "taking no thought for the divine love, charity, and purity throughmorrow," and trusting to be fed like the out the world, and humanising the ironsparrows, would, in modern socioty, come clad and iron-souled warriors, whose dangerously near being what we call in trust was in their stout hearts and strong Scotland a ne'er-do-weel," that is to right arms, and who knew no law but say, a soft, molluscous sort of creature, who is a burden on his friends, and ends The simple plan, his days as a pensioner on charity or a That he should take who has the power, writer of begging letters. The foremost • And he should keep who can. men and foremost races of modern society are precisely those who act on the opposite In another respect it is most important principle, and do look ahead and steer that the world should, as far and as long wisely and boldly amidst dangers and as possible, hold on to Christianity and difficulties for distant and definite ends. struggle to save its essential spirit from In one of the old Norse sagas there is a the shipwreck of its theology, and from ·110 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT seven or the sheer impossibility of believing in been dissolved by death and no longer the literal and historical truth of many exist. We know as little in the way of of its dogmas. accurate and demonstrable knowledge of The highest and most consoling beliefs our condition after death as we do of our of the human mind are to a great extent existence-if we had an existence-before bound up with the Christian religion. birth. If we ask ourselves frankly how much, If we turn for an answer to these apart from this religion, would remain of questions from science to metaphysics, faith in a God and in a future state of we find ourselves in cloud-land. Mists existence, the answer must bc, very of fine phrases and plausible conjectures little. Science traces everything back condense into philosophies, and dissolve to primeval atoms and germs, and there away again without leaving a vestige it leaves us. How came these atoms and of positive knowledge. Take Descartes' energies there, from which this wonderful famous fundamental axiom, "Cogito, universe of worlds has been evolved by ergo sum,' ,"-I think, therefore I am. Is inevitable laws? What are they in their it really an axiom? Does it take us any essence, and what do they mean? The nearer to what thought really is, and only answer is, it is unknowable. It is what is the true meaning of existence ? “ behind the veil," and may be anything. If the fact that I am conscious of think- Spirit may be matter, matter may be ing proves the fact that I exist, is the spirit. We have no faculties by which converse true, that whatever does not we can even form a conception, from any think does not exist? Am I existent discoveries of the telescope or microscope, or non-existent during the from any experiments in the laboratory, eight hours of dreamless sleep out of or from any facts susceptible of real every twenty-four, when to a certainty human knowledge, of what inay be the I am not thinking? Does a child only first cause underlying all these phe begin to exist when it begins to think? nomena. If "Cogito, ergo sum,” is an intuition In like manner we can already to il to which we can trust, why is not great extent, and probably in a short Non cogito, ergo non sum," an equally time shall be able to the fullest extent, good foundation on which to build a to trace the whole development of life system of philosophy, and spir, out of from the lowest to the highest; from the brain an ideal system of God, man, protoplasm, through monera, infusoria, and the universe! mollusca, fish, reptile, and inammal, up The so-called intuitions of metaphysics to man--and the individual man from seem really to amount to little more than the microscopic egs, through the various translations into philosophical language stages of its evolution up to birth, of our own earnest wishes and aspirachildhood, maturity, decline, and death. tions. We shudder at the notion of an- We can trace also the development of the nihilation ; we revolt ilt the idea that all human race through enormous periods of the high faculties of the mature and cultime, from the rudest beginnings up to tivated mind are to be extinguished by its present level of civilisation, and show cleath; we long for a future lifc, in which howarts, languages, morals, and religions we may again see beloved faces, and, have been evolved grailuilly by natural pondering on these things, we have a laws from primitive elements, many of strong impression that it must not and which are common in their ultiinite form cannot be, which presently takes the to man and the animal creation. form, in some minds of a philosophical But here also science stops. Science turn, of what is called an intuition, on can give no account of how these gernis which they proceed to build up a demonand nucleated cells, endowed with these stration of God and immortality. marvellous capacities for evolution, cam But, again, what do they really know into existence or got their intrinsic more than science has already told us? powers. Nor can science enable us to The essence of all spiritual existence, as form the remotest conception of what far as we know anything, of it, is perwill become of life, consciousness, and sonal consciousness. This clearly depends conscience, when the material conditions on, or is indissolubly associated with, a with which they are always issociated certain condition of a material organ-. while within human experience, have the brain. With a less active condition ·CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT MIRAOLES 111 of this organ, as in sicep, personal con ceive such an act of foul villainy as David sciousness is suspended. In the case of practised towards Uriah, and who not a man recovered from drowning by arti only condoned the crime, but rewarded ficial means, it is gone, and the man is to it by giving the succession to the son of all intents and purposes dead for per the adulterous intercourse with Bathhaps a quarter of an hour, and would sheba, has become the God of holy love remain dead if warm blankets and arti and purity of the New Testament. At ficial respiration did not recall him to which of these stages entered that philolife. Where and what was he during sophical intuition of God which is said this interval ? and, if his personal identity to be an innate faculty of the human and conscious existence were gone for minci, and the surest base of all dur knowthat quarter of an hour, wly and when ledge of the universe ? Where is the did they return? and, if the Humano inevitable intuitive perception of a per- Society's men had been less prompt, sonal Deity in the minds of some of the would they ever have returned ? deepest thinkers and purest livers of the These are questions to which no meta present day, who, like Herbert Spencer, pbysical system that I have ever seen can discern nothing behind the veil but can return the semblance of an answer. a great unspeakable and unknowable? Again, how is it possible for philosophy After all, we must fall back on Christo lay down as an axiom that man has tianity for any grounds upon which to an intuitive perception of a Deity, in the trust, more or less faintly, in the “larger face of the fact that whole races of savage hope." The Christian religion, apart from men have no such perception, anıl have any question of miracles, is an existing not got beyond rude fetichism and a vague fact. It is a fact wliich for nineteen censuperstitious fear of ghosts and evil turies has proved, on the whole, in accordspirits, while others, further advanced, ance with other facts and with the deepest have made their own anthropomorphic feelings and highest aspirations of the gods, obviously from reflections of their noblest men and women of the foremost own faculties and passions on the distant races in the progressive march of civilimists of the unknown, like the spectres sation. Why do we say that its moral of the Brocken ? We can trace the idea teachings, such as we find in the Sermon of Deity step by step, from early attempts on the Mount, and in St. Paul's definition to explain phenomena of nature, astro of Christian charity, carry conviction nomical, legendary, and linguistic nyths, with them and prove themselves ? Beand reverence for departed ancestors and cause they accord with, and give the heroes, up to the philosophical concep best expression to, feelings which, in the tions of a Plato or a Marcus Aurelius. course of evolution of the human mind In the same way we can trace, step by from barbarism to civilisation, have bester, the transformation of the tribal come instinctive. We may be able to God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, into trace their origin and developinent, we the national God of Israel, who was may be able to see that they are not at first only better and stronger than the primary instincts, implanteil at birth, gods of the surrounding nations, but like those of the lower animals, but finally became the sole God of the uni secondary instincts, formed by the action verse, degrading the other gods to the of a civilised environment on hereditary category of dumb idols. So, also, we can aptitudes. Still, there they are, and being see the first crude anthropomorphic con what they are, and living in the age and ceptions of this Deity gradually giving society in which we actually live, they way to purer und nobler ideas. The God are inevitable and necessary instincts, who required rest on the seventh day, and it requires no train of reasoning or becomes the Almighty one at whose word laboured reflection to make us feel that all things were created. The jealous and "sight is right," and that it is better for cruel God who withdrew His favour from ourselves and others to act on such prethe chivalrous Saul, because he would cepts as those of " loving our neighbours not how his captives in pieces before the as ourselves," and "doing as we would Lord, is transformed into the God who be done by," rather than to reverse these loves mercy and not sacrifice." The rules and obey the selfish promptings of God who found after His own heart the animal nature Of the same order, though man whose depraved mind could con less clear and cogent, are the teachings of ·112 JODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT the Gospel respecting God and iminorta and sacred associutions, should be lity. They are less clear and less cogent, cherished, as far as it is possible to do because the only evidence by which they so without shutting our eyes to facts could be denonstrated from without, that and indulging in conscious insincerity. of miracles, has broken down and failed For the same reason we shall do well us; and because we cannot verify them to be tender with the fornis and creeds experimentally by an appeal to facts, as of religion, even when they appear we can in regard to the working of moral to be getting obsolete, and their strict laws and precepts. But it still reinains and literal interpretation becomes no that they are ideas which have arisen longer consistent with known truths. inevitably in the course of the evolution It is far better that the transformation of the human mind; and that they it in requisite requisite to bring them into accordance with and satisfy, in a way which no other with the evolution of modern thought ideas can do, many of the best and deepest caused by the discoveries of science, feelings which have equally been deve should take place gradually ad spon. loped in that mind, in the course of its taneously from within, rather than forcibly progressivo ascent from lower to higher and abruptly fronı without. Evolutionists things. It remains also true that science, specially ought to trust to the healing while it can add nothing to this proof, influences of time, and the inevitable takes nothing froin it, and that while though gradual survival of that which it excludes Tiracles and supernatural is inost in harmony with its existing eninterference after the order of the uni vironment. verse has been once established, it leads Already a great deal has been quietly us back step by step to a great Unknown, done in this direction. Intolerance and in which, from the very fact that it is fanaticisun have almost disappeared from unknown, everything is possible. cultured minds. Even in the ranks Further than this it is not possible to of the clergy themselves, many, in all carry the proof. If we are to believe ut denominations, are devoting themselves all in a God, we must be content to believe more and inore to good works, and less that He knows better than we do what to theological disputes and scctarian is right and consistent with the conditions wranglings. of our own existence and that of the The metaplıysical side of Christian universe; and that part of the scheme is dogma is fast receding into the far that at a certain stage of the develop- distance. The Athanasian Creed, which ment of our race we should have to once convulsed empires and occupied a exchange the certainty of simple and foremost place in the thought of the age, limited faith for the fainter trust in a has become a mere form, reul once or larger hope. We may, perhaps, dimly twico a year by lukewarm preachers to discern something analogous in the indifferent or scandalised audiences, who progress of each individual from child- would be only too glad to have a decent hood to manlıood. He has to part with excuse for dropping it out of sight altoany a simple belief ond unhesitating gether. Let any sincere Christian put to trust, and climb the hill of life staggering himself candidly the question what part under many a burden of doubt ind the " Holy Ghost," or the definition of difficulty ; and yet it is better for him the “Logos," really has in the living faith to "set" a stiff' heart to a steep brae," which guides his actions, and he will be and struggle upwards while life is in hiin astonished to find into what infinitesinial rather than to remain an innocent child proportions these once vital dogmas playing at its fout. have actually faded. It will be the same Anyhow, whether we like it or not, this with all dogmas which, in their literal is the fact we have to accept; but the and historical interpretation, contradict hill is steep, the burden heavy, and sve established .facts. They will be either may well be grateful to anything which, forgotten, or, if they contain a kernel of however vaguely, belps and cheers us spiritupl meaning, will be transformed on the way. From this point of view, into truths taught by parables. the ideas of God and of a future life In the meantime, it behoves those who taught by the Christian religion, ac see more clearly than others the absolute cepted by so many good men, and cortainty of the conclusions of science, hallowed by so many venerable traditions and the inevitably fatal results to ·PRACTICAL LIFE 113 religion of staking its existence on literal tion or, as modern science tells us, by interpretations which have become flatly the slow evolution of primitive faculties, incredible, to do their best to assist the and the accumulation through countless transformation of the old dogmatic theo- generations of hereditary influences logy into a new “Christianity without tending towards the survival of the miracles," which shall retain the essential fittest, both of individuals and of spirit, the pure morality, the consoling societies, in the struggle for life. In either beliefs, and, as far as possible, the vener case the standard is there, not as a vague able forms and sacred associatious of the and theoretical, but as an absolute and old faith, while placing them in thorough imperative, rule, and the difficulty is not accordance with freedom of thought, and to discern it, but to act up to it. with the whole body of other truths, It may be that it is to a great extent discovered and to be discovered, respect the product of education, and depends on ing the universe and man. the environment in which we are brought up: It is pretty certain that if I had been kidnapped when a child by Comanche Indians, I should have grown up with a very different moral standard touching the taking of scalps and the practice of treacherous murder. But I have not CHAPTER X been so kidnapped, and having been born and brought up in a civilised country PRACTICAL LIFE of the nineteenth century, it is inevitible Conscience --Right is Right-Self-reverence that outward influences combined with --Courage-Respectability--- Influence of inward cilpacities should give me il con- Press-Respect for Women-Self-respect of science, which tells me in clear euough Nations-Democracy and Imperialism- accents whether I am doing right or Self kuowledge-Conceit-- Luck-- Speculawrong. And it is equally certain that by tion--Money-making Practical Aims of acting in accordance with this conscience, Life--Self-control-Conflict of Reason and I shall, on the whole, be doing better for Instinct-Temper--Manners--Good Habits in Youth-Success in Practical Life--Edumyself and better for others thau by cation-Stoicism-Conclusion. disregarding it. It is none too easy to make our life even a tolerable approxi- Self-reverence self-knowledge, self-control, mation towards doing right for the sake These three alone lead life lo sovereign power. of right, and it would be folly to Yet not for power ; that of itself allow any theoretical considerations as Would como uncalled for; Lul to live by rule, to the origin of the idea of right to be an Acting the rule we live by without fear, excuse for relaxing any of the constant And because right is right to follow right, and strenuous effort which is requisite to Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence. keep our feet from straying from the TENNYSON, (Erone, straight path. It is much wiser to cast around us for influences and inducements In these lines, which he puts into the to strengthen the inward law, and to enmouth of the goddess of wisdom, Tenny- deavour by clear insight to bring reason son, the same poet who lias already con to the aid of faith, and enable us to see densed the essence of modern thought intelligently the main causes both of our in the lines already quoted from "In weakness and of our strength. Memoriam," gives us what inay be well This is what the poet does for us in the called " the Gospel of practical life." It is lines above quoted. Rightly considered, clearly our highest wisdon to follow right, "self-reverence, self-knowledge, and selfnot from selfish calculation or hope of control” are the three pillars which supreward, but because “right is right"; in pot the edifice of a wise and well-ordered other words, because we have a standard practical life. within us which tells us, in an unmis Self-reverence, in its widest meaning, takable voice, what to do and what to includes the faculty of forming some refrain from doing. For practical pur ideal standard superior to the lower poses, it is comparatively unini portant nature of animal man, and recognising how this standard got there ; whether, in ourselves somo power of approximataccording to old creeds, by direct inspira ing to it. The higher the standurd the ·114 MODERN SCIENOE AND MODERN THOUGHT If poor renobler will be the man who cherishes it selfish action. Gordon sacrifices his life and tries to attain to it, but it is by no at Khartouin, not only cheerfully but means a rare gift confined to a few select almost instinctively, because the suggesnatures. On the contrary, it is the com tion that he might save himself by monest and most universal incentive to abandoning those who had trusted in good conduct. Even in the rudest and him seems an absolute impossibility. simplest form of admiration for physical It is a great advantage of the present courage, it makes heroes of many a day that education and the press bring common soldier and sailor, such instances of devoted heroism vividly Tommy Atkins, fresh from the plough- before millions who would never othertail, stanús firm in the shattered squares wise have heard of them. The influence of Waterloo, or on the bloody ridge of of the press, both in the way of books Inkermann, it is because he has been and newspapers, is happily in this country brought up in the fixed idea that a Briton almost entirely one which makes for must not run away from a Frenchman or gooil. There is not a noble act done a Russian. throughout the world, by high or low, by In civil life the idea of respectability, private or officer, by soldier or civilias, though not a very elevated one and apt which is not held up for praise and to degenerate into narrowness, and that admiration; while any signal instance of which Carlyle and Arnold sneer at as cowardice or selfishness is held up to "Gigmanity" and "Philistinism," is yet contempt.. Newspaper correspondence one of universal and, on the whole, bene und leiding articles have, to a great exficial influence. A large majority of the tent, superseded sermons, and do the pracmiddle and upper working classes lead tical moral work of the world in asserting decorous lives very much because they the right and rebuking wickedness in feel it incumbent on them to be high places. In like manner all the spectable" in their own eyes and those higher works of poetry, fiction, and of their neighbours. In the case of one biography have a good tendency, and are half of the human race, the female hall, read by an ever-increasing number of the feeling of self-respect and the desire readers. Enid and Elaine, Jeanie Deans, to be what is called respectable afford the Laura Pendennis, Lucy Roberts, are the strongest and most constantly present sort of models set before girls; while securities both for good morals and good boys who have any heroic fibre in their The immense majority of nature are fed with such lives as those British women are morlest maidens and of Lawrence and Gordon. For all, but faithful wives, not so inuch from any especially for the young, there is no help cold calculation of the balance of ud. self-improvement so great as to read vantages, or from fear of consequences, good books in a generous spirit; and as from an instinctive feeling that they nothing which dwarfs the mind so much cannot be otherwise without losing caste as to debauch it by frivolous reading, and and forfeiting their own self-respect and by the nioral drain-drinking of sensational that of their neighbours. rubbish, until it loses all natural and From these common and universal healthy appetite for the pure and eleforms of "self-reverence” we rise, step vated. An affectation of narrow knowby step, to the higher ideals, which, in ingness is also a very fatal tendency in every rank and every condition of life, the youthful mind. A inan from wiose give us among giited natures what may mouth such words as "rot" and "humbe called the “sult of the earth," and the bug" are constantly heard is, in nine shining examples which guide the world cases out of ten, a very poor, rotten to higher things--noble men and noble creature himself. A Sidney, dying on the field of Among the many advantages of self- Zutphen, hands over the cup of water respect, not the least important is that it to a wounded soldier because his soul, teaches respect for others. The petty nourished on noble thoughts, and his jealousies and suspicions, the senseless fancy, fed by the old ballads which, like quarrels, the slanderings and backbitings, that of “Chevy Chase," stirred him like which so often turn sour the wine of life, a trumpet-blast, had led him to conceive disuppear of themselves when a proper in ideal of a perfect knight which would standard of self-respect has been firmly have been tarnished by any shade of a established, and a high ideal of human manners, women.

·PRACTICAL LIFE 115 . foe; are aslife has become part of our nature. As even more true of nitions. Self-respect Tennyson says: is the very essence of national life. A great nation may suffer great disasters, and Like simple noble natures credulous survive them, if the spirit of its people Of what they wish for, good in friend or remains intact. England survived the war of American independence, and while on the other hand Prussia recovered from the defeat of Jena. But if a nation loses its vigour and self- The long-necked geese of the world respect, if it begins to groan under the Are always hissing dispraise, because their burdens of extended empirc, and to prenatures are little. fer comfort to honour, ignoble ease to noble effort, the hour of its decline has There are some who delight in running sounded. Imperial Rome did not long down everything and everybo:ly, and survive when she began to contract her whose appetite for scandal is so great frontiers and buy ofl barbarians. The that they are positively unable to re most fatal thing any Government can do frain from believing and spreading an for a country is to destroy its sense of ill-natured, tale, if it affects some emi self-respect and teach it to acquiesce in nent man, and still more if it affects what is felt to be dishonourable. a well-known woman. Such Looking forward to the future of the suredly not the sort of persons whom we great British Empire, this is evidently a should like to resemble ourselves, or to turning-point of its destinies. The trisee our sons and daughters resemble. umph of democracy is an inevitable fact; have always found through life, a safe for knowledge is power, and whether rule to go by was, if you hear an ill for good or evil, the masses have either natured story of a man, discount nine acquired, or are fast acquiring knowtonths of it is a lie, and if of a woman, ledge, and with equal political rights don't believe a word of it. numbers will tell. How will this demo- Perhaps the best test of the amount of cracy of the future aflect Imperial real "self-reverence" in an individual or interests, and what will be its attitude a nation, is to be found in the tone and in regard to foreign and colonial policy ? manner in which women are treated. A On the one hand it may be hoped low tone invariablybespeaks a low nature, that by making our institutions more and testifies to innate coilrseness and popular, and going down to the heart of snobbishness," however high may be the the masses, our policy will acquire fresh rank and polished the outward varnish energy and our public men fresh vigour. of the person who indulges in it. On the The working classes are very patriotic, other hand the roughest miner or back and, on the whole, more open to the inwoodsman is alreruly more than half a fluence of generous ideas than the class gentleman, if his attitude towards women imniediately above them. In the recent is one of chivalrous courtesy. Nothing instance of the great civil war in the looks more hopeful for the future of the United States, we have seen a democracy human race than to see that the female making greater sacrifices of men and half of it are constant gainers by the money for theidea of maintaining national progress of freedom and education. It greatness, than wis probably ever volungoes a long way to reconcile one to the tarily made by any monarchical oraristodangers of democracy, to find that in the cratic country. The Copper-heads, who newest and most democratic countries of preached peace where there was the world, such as the United States and peace, and advised letting the erring British colonies, women can travel alone sisters go their way rather than spend without fear of insult, and have far more lives and money in the attempt to coerco innocent liberty and freedom of thought them, ibund no response from a nation and action than they havo in older who felt that the union was their union, societies. Whatever may be the case as and its greatness the separate personal regards men, for women there cart be no possession of each individual citizen. doubt that there is a progressive scale But, on the other hand, demagogues upwards from East to West, from despot will never be wanting to flatter the ism to freedom, from Turkey to America. people, and angle for power by appcal- What has been said of individuals is ing to their lower instincts and advo. NO ·116 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT a comunion cating measures of present ease and popularity. If a necessity arises for maintaining by the sword an empire which has been won by the sword, the army of parochial politicians who gauge everything by the standard of pounds, shillings, and pence, will be reinforced by the far more respectable body of sentimentalists and humanitarians, who shrink from the shedding of blood in wars the abstract justice of which is not absolutely demonstrated. A large number, perhaps a majority, of platform orators will therefore be found now, as it was in the days of Demosthenes, to de. nounce armaments, ridicule precautions, minimise responsibilities, and look upon India, the Colonies, and extended empire generally, as troublesome encumbrances rather than as glorious possessions. The two conflicting ideals constantly set before our future political rulers, the four millions whose votes Kecide the fate of policies and of ministries, will be on the one hand, that our first duty is to hand down the British Empire to our sons no less great and glorious than we received it from our fathers; on the other, that it is better to stay at home, mind our own atairs, avoid entanglenients, contract responsibilities, pass reform bills, and reduce taxes, trusting to the "silver streak” and the chapter of accidents to protect us from invasion. It is the old story of the fable of Hercules, which pre, sents itself constantly to each individual and to every nation. Shall we follow the strait and narrow path which leads upwards, or the broad and citsy one which leads, with a pleasant slope, to a lower level? Would it have been better for Paris to give the golden apple to Minerva, counselling “self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control," or to Venus, promising pleasure ? so blinded by vanity that they go through life committing angentlemanly actions while fanoying themselves perfect gentlemen ; who are convinced that all men adınire them and all women are in love with them, while in reality every one sees through them and laughs at them. A thoroughly impervious vanity is like & waterproof, which throws off the wholesome rain on the outside, while on the inside it is soaked with unhealthy exhalations. Fortunately this type of vanity is not one with our English race, who are too proud and self-reliant to feel the petty anxiety of the really vnin man to be always shining in the eyes of others. With us it takes more the form of priding ourselves on artificial distinctions, and attaching an exaggerated importance to matters of trivial importance. Your commonplace English swell, for instance, is apt to class all mankind under two categories--thosa who associate with lords and wear clothes of a fashionable cut, and those who do not, ind to set down all the former as the "right sort,"and all the latter as “ brutes." It is a sign of narrowness to make a fetich of these or any other arbitrary distinctions between an upper ten and the rest of mankind, and self-knowledge is never more required than to show the hollowness of adventitioux: advantiges which are not supported by intrinsic merit. A true gentleman feels The rank is but the guinca stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that, and feeling this, he holds out the hand of hearty huinan sympathy to peasant as well as to peer. If born to rank and riches, self-knowledge tells him that he is simply placed on a pedestal, where, if he fails to act on the maxim. that "noblesse oblige," the failure will be the more conspicuous. No iñan who really knows himself can ever be conceited, for he must be aware how fitur lie has fallon short in practice of his own idealstandard, and how constantly "he has done things he ought not to have done, and left, undone things he ought to have done." On Che other hand, there is an opposite extreme from which self-knowledge will save a man : that of undue despondency and want of proper confidence and selfreliance. There are men who fail in SELF-KNOWLEDGE Oh wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us ! BURNS. A gift which is unfortunately as rare as it is necessary. Without self-knowledge to see our faults how shall we correct them? How shall become wise if insensible to our follies ? How shall we achieve success if we learn no lessons from our failures 1 There are some men WA ·PRACTICAL LIFE 117 everything they undertake because they have int the heart to undertake it resolutely, and who at last sink down into the hopeless condition of querulous mental invalids, who cherish their ailments rather than conibat them, and are rather proud than otherwise to be considered as interesting victims of untoward circumstances. For all the relations of practical life the one essential requisite of success is to see things as they really are, and not as we wish them to be ; and for this purpose self-knowledge is the foundation of clear insight. If the focus of the glass is wrongly adjusted it will show only distorted images, but if a clear eye looks through a properly focussed glass, outward objects will be truly represented. Perhaps the commonest of all delusions is that of being born under a lucky star. A man gambles, bets, or speculates because he thinks be is lucky and sure to win. Now, there is in reality no such thing as luck, it is all a question of averages. The only approach to what inay be called luck is, that a fool will probably have more of it than a wise man, for as the fool foresees nothing, whenever fortune's die turns up in his favour he sets it down to luck, while the wise man, who has schened and worked for the event, calls it foresight. But the actual average of events, which depend entirely on chance, will be the same. If a man plays at rouge et noir with one chance in a hundred in favour of the bank, it is certain that if he plays often enough, he will lose his capital once at least for every hundred times he plays. Or, if he speculates on the Stock Exchange, the turn of the market and broker's commission will, in the long run, certainly swallow up his original capital. And yet men will gamble and speculate, because they cannot resist the pleasing illusion that they are lucky, and that it would be very nice to win a large stake without having had to work for it. There is nothing for which self-knowledge is more indispensable in practical life than to enable a man, to steer a straight course between opposite ex. tremes, and to discern clearly thy boundary line between right and wrong. The law of polarity, by which things good in themselves if pushed to extremes become bad, and every truth develops & corrosponding error, is of daily and universal application in practical affairs. Take, for instance, the much-debated question of the pursuit of money. Poets and novelists are never tired of denouncing the "Auri sacra fames," and there is no doubt that, when carried to excess, it is the fertile source of crime ; and even in a less degree, it leads to meanness and dishonesty, and has a degrading influence on the individual or the nation who give themselves up too exclusively to the worship of the "almighty dollar." But, on the other hand, the desire, or rather the necessity under the conditions of civilised society, of making money, is by far the most powerful and all-pervading influence of practical life. And, within due bounds and under proper conditions, it is a healthy and beneficial influence. At the lowest stage it olliges men to work instead of being idle, and this is an immense advantage both to the community and to the individual. An idle man, in every grade of society, is generally a worthless and often à bad man; while an honest working man, whether the work be of the head or hand, is far moro likely to be happy and respectable. Again, the necessity of earning money, is a wonderful test of the real value of a man in the world's market. We should be all very apt to become pretentious wind-bags of conceit, if were not brought to our senses by the wholesome douche of having to work for a livelihood. Many a man who fancies himselt intended for å poet or politician, and some who by accident of birth or fortune are pitchforked into prominent positions, would find it difficult to point out any occupa tion in which they are honestly worth a couple of hundred a year. Even in the higher departments of art and literature, it may be questioned whether the healthy, natural desire to turn an honest penny has not inspired greater works than a morbid appetito for fame. Shakespeare's ambition was to retire to his native town with a Iridderate competency ; Walter Scott's to become a laird, with a family estate, in the border-land of the chief of his clan -"the bold Buccleuch." And, in the present day, literature is becoming more and an honourable profession, which men take to, as they do to law WO - more ·118 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGIIT ence. or medicine, as a means of earning a kind have neither the opportunities nor livelihood. the faculties fore playing for very high It must always be borne in mind that stakes, and must be contented with the under the practical conditions of modern safe game for moderate and attainable civilisation, money means not only the ends. One such end is within the reach possibility of bare existence, but nearly of almost every one: all that makes existence tolerablehealth, recreation, culture, and independ. To make a happy household clime The number and locality of the For weans and wife, rooms a man lives in, the number of cubic Is the true pathos and sublime Of human life. feet and purity of the air he and his family breathe, are questions of rent; the food they eat, the clothes they wear, So says Burns, who has a rare faculty the books they read, the holidays they and the ideal he sets before us in these of hitting the right nail on the head; enjoy, are all questions of money. And simple lines is at once the truest and the above all, without money there is no inmost universal. The man who fails in dependence. An absolutely penniless this is himself a failure; while the men man has to fall back on crime or the wlio by his industry and energy supports workhouse; a poor man is at the mercy a family in comfort and respectability of a thousand inccidents ; sickness, fuc according to their station, and who, at tuations of trade, caprice of employers, the same time, by control of teinper, pressure of creditors, may at any nokindness, unselfishness, and sweet inent reduce hini and those who depend reasonableness makes his household a on him to want. lt admits of no queshappy one, may feel, even though fortune tion, that the first duty of every one is may not have placed him in a position to endeavour to raise himself above this of higher responsibilities, that he has level of ignoble daily cares, and plant not lived in vain, that he has performed himself in a position where he can face the first duties and tasted the truest the present and look forward to the pleasures of mortal existence, and that, future with tolerable cquanivity. As whatever there may be behind the imwe rise in the scale of society the penetrable veil, he can face it with head problem becomes more ditficult. Money. erect, as one of “Nature's gentlexnen." making is very apt to be pushed to excoss and lead to gambling and dishonesty ; while the worship of wealth, SELF-CONTROL which is perhaps the besetting sin of the age, is distinctly the cause of much lax This is, after all, the vitally importinorality and snoblish vulgarity. But ant element of a happy and successful on the other land, money is power, and life. The compass may point truly to a large fortune honestly acquired and the pole, the chart may show the right well spent, gives its possessor unrivalled channel amidst shouls and rocks, but the opportunities for doing good. He can ship will hardly arrive safely in port assist charities, patronise art, and if unless the helmsman stands at his post gifted with force of character and fair is all weathers, ready to meet any sheer abilities may become a legislator and of the bow by a timely turn to starboard statesmin, and enrol his name in the or to port. So self-reverence ande selfannals of his country. It is hard to say knowledge may point out ever so clearly that if a man has an opportunity of the path of duty, unless self-control is making a large fortune honestly, and constantly present we shall surely stray feels that he has it in him to use it nolly, from it. At every moment of our lives he should refrain from doing so because niztural instinct tells us to do one thing, moralists cry: "Sour grapes," and tell while reason and conscience tell us to do him that riches are deceitful. another. It is by an effort that we get But for nothing is "self-knowledge up in the morning and go about our more requisite than to enable a man to daily work. It is by an effort that we see clearly how high he can safely aim, refrain from indulgences and forego and what sort of stake he can prudently pleasures, control our passions, restrain play for. The immense majority of man-, our tempers. The uncultured man is ·PRAOTICAL LIFE 119 even riolent, selfish, childish; it is only by the said for religions which, like the Chinese, nherited or acquired practice of self- lay down rules of politeness, and make Control that he is curausformed into the salvation depend very thuch on the obcivilised man-courteous, considerate, servance of rites and ceremonies intended jensible, and reliable. to ensure courtesy and decorum in the The necessity of self-control in all the intercourse of all classes of the commore important relations of moral and munity in daily life. practical life is so obvious that it would Although not so bad as the indulgence be only repeating commonplaces to of a violent or morose temper, a great enlarge on it. But there is often danger deal of unhappiness is caused by a fussy of its being overlooked in those minor and fidgety disposition, which makes morals of conduct which make up the mountains out of molehills, and keeps greater part of life, and determine the every one in hot water about trifles. This happiness or misery of oneself and is one of the common faults of idleness, others. as genuine work both strengthens the For instance, control over the temper. fibre to resist and leaves no time to brood A man never shows his cousinship to the over petty troubles. Ape so much as when he is in a passion. The excuse one com mmonly hears from The manifestations are so exactly similar those who give way to these petty --irrational violence, nervous agitation, infirmities is, "that they cannot help total loss of head, and abdication of all it, they are born with thin skins and presence of mind and reasoning power. excitable tempers." This is the excuse To see a grown-up man reduced to the of sloth and weakness. If, as the poet level of a spoiled child, or of a monkey says, who has been disappointed of a nut, is spectacle of which it is hard to say Man is man, and master of his fate, whether it is more ridiculous or painful. Even worse than occasional violence is what sort of an unmanly creature must the babitual ill-temper which makes he be who cannot master the life miserable to those who are obliged slightest impulse or resist the slightest to put up with it. We call a man who temptation, and allows himself to be strikes woman or child with his fist a rufiled into a storm by every passing brute ; what is he if he strikes them breath, like a shallow roadside puddle? daily and hourly, ten times more cruelly, If he will not try he certainly will not with his tongue ? A ten times greater learn ; but if he will honestly try to brute. And yet there are men, calling correct faults, he will find it easier themselves gentlemen, who do this, either every time, until the fancied imposfrom sheer brutality of nature, or oftener sibilities fade away and are forggtten. from inconsiderateness, coarseness of A man who is so much afraid of tibre, and inability to exercise self tumbling off that he will never mount control in minor matters. a horse, may fancy that Nature has dis- There is one very common mistake qualified him for riding; but for all made, that of considering relationship that, nine men out of ten, if obliged to an excuse for rudeness. The members of try--say ils recruits in a civalry regia family may relax something of the ment-though they may not all turn out stiffress of company, manners among accomplished horsemen, will all learn to themselves, but they should never forget ride well enough for practical purposes. that it is just as much ill-breeding to say It is peculiarly important for the young a rude thing to a wife, a sister, or a to set resolutely about correcting bad brother, as it would be to say it to any habits and forming good ones, while the other lady or gentleman. In fact, it is faculties are fresh and the brain supple; worse, for the other latly can treat you fus, inobedience to the law by which with contempt and keep out of your way, molecular motions travel by preference while the poor woman who is tied to you along beaten paths, every year cuts feels it keenly, and has no means of deeper the channels of thought and escape from it. Good manners are, in feeling, whether for good or evil. A brain practical life, a great part of gend trained to respond to calls of duty soon morals; and there is something to be does so with case and elasticity, just as ·120 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT the muscles of the blacksmith's arm or of as soon as he leuves school or college.. the ballet-dancer's leg acquire strength Almost everything we know that is worth and vigour by exercise ; while, on the knowing we teachwurselves in aftur life. other hand, motion is a pain and self But the discipline of school is invaluable control an effort to the soft and fiabby in teaching the lesson of self-control.com limb or brain which has been weakened Almost every hour of the day a boy by self-indulgence. school has to do things that are uis- It is scarcely necessary to say that for agreeable and abstain from doing things success in practical life, self-control is that nature prompts, under pain of the one thing most needful. To take getting a caning from the master or a the simplest case, that of & young thrashing from other boys. The memory working man beginning life with herlth, also is exercised, and the faculty of knowledge of a trade, or even without it fixing the mind on work is developed, by with good thews and sinews, he is the most useless almost as well as by useful studies. free and independent of mortals, on one In this point of view even that ne plus condition-that he has saved £10. With vltra of technical pedantry, the Latin this, he is a free agent in disposing of his granımar, with its "Propria quæ marilabour, he can make his contract with an bus" and "As in presenti,” møy have ås employer on equal terms, he can carry use in teaching a boy that no matter how his goods to the best market, and is absurd or repulsive a task may be, he has practically a citizen of the world, ready got to tackle to it or worse will befall to start for San Francisco or Melbourne him. if he thinks he can better himself. But it is in a moral sense that the Without it, he is a scrf tied to the soil, infiuence of a good school is most valuhe cannot move from place to place, he able. The average boy learns that he must take whatever wages are offered must not tell lies, he must not be a sncak him or starve. or a coward, he must take punishment But how to save the £10? That is a bravely, and conform to the school. question of daily and weekly recurrence ; mister's standard of discipline and the whether to spend an extra shilling in the school-boy's standard of honour. In this pleasant way of going to a public house Way the first lesson of life, stoicism, and sitting with a pipe and a jug of ale becomes with most English lads a sort of by the tireside among jolly companions, instinct or second nature, or to forego the pleasure and save the For stoicism, after all, is the foundation shilling. A shilling a week saved will, and primary element of #l useful and in four years, give him the £10, and go a honourable life. Whether as Carlyle's good way to establish habits which, if he "Everliesting No," or as George Eliot's is enterprising and goes to a colony, or advice to take the pains and mishaps of is clever and has any luck at home, may life without resorting to moral opium, readily make the ten a hundred, or even the conclusion of all the greatest mines a thousand pounds. So in every class of is that a man must have something of life, the man who gets on is the man who the Red Indian in him and be able to las schooled himself never to ask whether suffer silently, and burn his own smoke, a thing is pleasant, but whether it is if he is to be worth anything. And still right and reasonable; who always keeps more a woman, who has to bear witli and a bright look-out ahead, and wlio does make the best of a thousand petty anhis best at the task, whatever it may be, noyances without complaint. Men can that is set before him. bear on great occasions, but in the Education really resolves itself very innumerable petty trials of life women much into teaching the young to acquire its a rule show more self-control and this indispensable faculty of self-control. inoral fortitude. What would the life of The amount of positive knowledge, useful a woman be who could not stand being in after life, acquired at our English bored with a smiling face, put up with public schools, is really very little beyond the worries of children and servants with the three R's. A boy who could teach cheerf«l fortitude, and turn away an' himself French or German in five inonths angry word by a soft answer? spends five years over Latin and Greek, There is much more that might be und in nine cases out of ten forgets them side but my object is not to preach or ·PRACTICAL LIFE 121 CSmoralise, but simply to record a few of the practical rules and reflections which bave impressed themselves on me in the course of a long and busy life. I do so in the hope that perchance they may awaken useful thoughts in soine, pecially of the younger readers, who may happen to glance over these pages. This much I may say for them, I have tried them and found them work well. I have lived for more than the Scriptural span of threescore and ten years, a life of varied fortunes and many experiences. I may say, in the words which iny favourite poet, Tennyson, puts into the mouth of Ulysses : For ever roaming with a hungry heart, Mucli have I seen and known, citics of men, And couricils, climates, vernments. And the conclusion I come to is, not that. of the Preacher, “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity," but rather Hat life, with all its drawbacks, is worth ming; and that to have been born in a civilised country in the nineteenth century is a boon for which a man can never be sufficiently thankful. Some Inuy find it otherwiso from no fault of their own; more by their own fault; but the majority of and may lead useful, honourable, and the whole fairly happy lives, if they will act on the maxiin wliich I hilvo always deavoured, however imperfectly, to followmen Women on en- FEAR NOTHING ; MAKE TIIE REST OF L'VEITTIIINO.

·. MORAL INSTRUCTION UNDER THE NEW EDUCATION CODE. NEW "Moral Instruction’ should form an important part of evėry school curriculum.' lirom the Board of Education's “ Code. of Rogultimis for i'ublic Elementary Schools” (1906). “The Children's Book of Moral Lessons, by F. J. GOULD, will be found to be of the greatest service to teachers. It is alrcady in use in some thousands of Public Elementary Schools, and is giving the greatest satisfaction all hands. THE THREE SERIES. First Series: “Self-Control" and "Truthfulness." "l'ith Frontispiece by Walter Crane. !28 pp., medium 8vo, paper covers, 6d. ; cloth, is. Second Series: “Kindness" and “Work and Duty." PP., cr. Svo, cloth, 25. Third Series: "The Family,” “People of Other Lands," "History of Industry, Art, Science, and Religion." 203 PP., cr. Svo, cloth, 25. By THE SAME AUTHOR. “The Children's Plutarch.” With Six Full-page Illustrations ly WALTER CRANE. Cloth, 300 PP., 25. 611. nct. Press (pinios; "The work has been thoroughly well «lone, and should be largely used in the school, and also in the home."... Leiasler Chronicle. “Published with a moral aim, for the illustration of which no author could be better chosen.”---Outlwuk. “: Is a gift book The Children's Plutarch would be admirable. Plutarch's Lives is a literary classic; as presentiel by Mr. Gould to the young people the work remains a classic, "----Midland livee Press. “Better than any commendation of the book that I can give was the verdictor a thirteen-ycar-old boy to whom I gave it. .** read it through it a sitting and pronounced it ‘first rate.""_W.T. STEAI), "The Rezieru of Reviemus." LONDON : WATTS & Co., JOT:VONS COURT, FLLET STREET, EA

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