THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 
 OF LIVING THINGS. 
 
PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
FHE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 
 OF LIVING THINGS 
 
 AND THE 
 
 APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES 
 OF EVOLUTION TO RELIGION 
 
 CONSIDERED AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE "WISDOM AND 
 BENEFICENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY." 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. GEORGE HENSLOW, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., 
 
 LECTURER ON BOTANY'AT ST BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL, LONDON; 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 GENESIS AND GEOLOGY, FREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT, 
 SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE NOT ANTAGONISTIC, &c. 
 
 Hontron : 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1873- 
 
 [All Rights reserved.] 
 
This Treatise obtained one of the ACTONIAN PRIZES 
 for the year 1872. 
 

 T\ 
 THE ACTON ENDOWMENT. 
 
 " HANNAH ACTON, of Euston Square, widow of Samuel 
 Acton, architect, from motives of respect and regard 
 for the memory of her late husband, and in order 
 to carry into effect his desire and intention, and with 
 a view to the diffusion and extension of useful know- 
 ledge in the Royal Institution, invested the sum of 
 one thousand pounds sterling upon trust, so that at 
 the end of every seven years successively one hundred 
 and five pounds should be offered as a reward or 
 Prize to the person, who shall in the judgment of the 
 Committee of Managers for the time being of the said 
 Institution, be the Author of the best essay illustrative 
 of the Wisdom and Beneficence of the Almighty, in 
 such department of Science as the said Committee of 
 Managers shall in their discretion select." 
 
 [There having been no assignment of such Prize 
 on the last septennial occasion two Prizes were 
 awarded in the year 1872, the other Essayist being 
 Mr B. Thompson Lowne, F.R.C.S.] 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN the following Essay I have abstained from 
 offering any hypothesis whatever which might 
 help to elucidate the methods of Evolution. 
 
 In the First Part I have endeavoured to give 
 but little more than an outline, and that I 
 fear a very imperfect one, of the evidence from 
 palaeontology ; while one chapter only (VIII.) con- 
 tains a summary from living organisms. 
 
 Being but indifferently acquainted with zoo- 
 logy and animal physiology, I am conscious 
 of not having presented to the reader so con- 
 vincing an argument as might possibly have 
 been offered. Moreover, I have been compelled 
 (in Chapter IV.) to assume him to have an ac- 
 quaintance with much matter, which, unless he 
 have studied palaeontology, probably will not 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 convey to his mind the same force as to the 
 writer's. Still, if he rise from a perusal of this 
 Essay with a stronger bias towards the Theory 
 of Evolution of living things, and will imder- 
 take to study nature impartially for himself, my 
 object will at least have been so far gained. 
 
 In the Second Part I have striven to shew 
 that the very same laws of Evolution, which 
 govern the origin and development of Beings, 
 regulate as well the growth of Religion, whether 
 in the Individual, the Church, or the Nation. 
 
 The argument is in fact cumulative, and its 
 analogies are infinite. If the Reader can but 
 realize this he will learn to regard the word 
 'Evolution' (not with suspicion or even horror!) 
 but as expressing one of the grandest and most 
 comprehensive laws in the universe. 
 
 It is unfortunate that some persons have 
 entertained the idea that Evolution must be an 
 atheistic theory. How it has arisen is not easy 
 to say, unless it be from the fact that when a 
 Man of Science advances a theory to account 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 for certain phenomena in nature, he wisely 
 omits all allusion to any theological questions 
 not that he may not, or does not, the while 
 hold views of Divine action in his own mind. 
 Thus probably has it been with the Theory 
 of Evolution. This word has been adopted 
 simply to express the conviction forced upon 
 the minds of certain observers, that all organ- 
 isms are derived from preexisting ones, and not 
 that each kind has been separately created. 
 Moreover, it is not that nature is called in by 
 the theorist to support his views as some seem 
 to imagine but that Evolution is best able to 
 express most of, if not all the phenomena con- 
 nected with the origin of beings. 
 
 That the Theory of Evolution is not necessa- 
 rily Atheistic, I trust this Essay will clearly 
 shew \ 
 
 1 Of course, I am aware that the Theory of Evolution, as 
 held by some persons, may be in appearance, if not actually 
 atheistic ; but all views of Evolution are not to be condemned, 
 because materialists and positivists may profess to dispense with 
 the aid of a Deity in Creation. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Perhaps it may be worth while to add, that 
 just as it is believed a man's spiritual growth in 
 grace to be due to the divine aid of the Holy 
 Spirit, working through and with his Free-Will, 
 to enable him to " work out his own salvation" : 
 so, I believe, does God in nature by means of 
 powers or laws, the nature and method of 
 action of which are quite unknown to us, 
 work out His own purposes through Evolution, 
 and produce those effects, which have given the 
 impression that they were directly designed. 
 
 In speaking of design I would observe, that 
 the so-called ' argument of design' is not at all 
 weakened, but rather strengthened by the 
 Theory of Evolution : for we need but extend 
 Paley's remarks upon the watch to see this. He 
 alludes to the mechanism as proof of an intelli- 
 gent maker, and adds that our idea of the great- 
 ness of that intelligence would be much en- 
 hanced, if watches could produce offspring like 
 themselves. Now, surely, a fortiori would the 
 intelligence appear far greater, if the maker 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 could have infused into the watch, not only 
 reparative powers in case of injury but also the 
 law that slight variations should appear in the 
 offspring, which, by accumulating in successive 
 generations, ultimately produced all the varieties 
 not only of watches but also of clocks of every 
 description in the world. Yet this would be 
 exactly analogous to the production of animal 
 and vegetal organisms by Evolution. 
 
 The design seen in a structure, is in fact part 
 of, and inseparable from it, pointing at once to 
 the existence of Mind, and is quite irrespective 
 of the process by which that structure was 
 brought into existence. 
 
 P. S. I have accidentally omitted an ac- 
 knowledgment of the aid I have derived from 
 Mr H. G. Lewes' papers in Fraser and the Fort- 
 nightly for some information embodied in the 
 second Chapter. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION OF 
 , LIVING THINGS. . 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION * . , . . . i 
 
 CHAPTER II, 
 HISTORY OF EVOLUTION' . . . . . 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD . 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF VERTEBRATE LIFE . . 41 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INVERTEBRATE TYPES . . . , . 77 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 NEGATIVE EVIDENCE ..... 84 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HOMOTAXIAL LlFB * . . 4 . ., 91 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION FROM EXISTING 
 BEINGS . . * . . . 97 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MAN 107 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM ANALOGY 124 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 MORAL EVIL OR SELFISHNESS 143 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 ON THE WISDOM AND BENEFICENCE OF THE CREATOR 158 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LAW OF INIDEALITY AND THE IDEA OF PERFEC- 
 TION: CONCLUSION t .... 197 
 
PART I. 
 
 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 
 OF LIVING THINGS. 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 ^^OFORN^I 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE theory, or rather doctrine, of the Evolution 
 of Living Things has not yet received that uni- 
 form acceptance to which it is undoubtedly 
 entitled. That it will in time become generally 
 received may be reasonably presumed; but at 
 present, with many theologians at least, the Crea- 
 tive hypothesis obstinately holds its ground. Two 
 causes may be assigned to account for this fact. 
 First, there is the preconceived but erroneous 
 idea of the method of creation derived from a 
 misconception of the first chapter of Genesis. 
 Secondly, there is the unfortunate but very- 
 general want of any scientific training, not only 
 H. I 
 
THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 amongst the clergy but in the public generally; 
 and, as a result, there is that absence of a due 
 power of appreciation of the arguments of the 
 scientific man, which is so conspicuous in their 
 style of reasoning. 
 
 In order, therefore, that the proof of the 
 Wisdom and Beneficence of the Almighty as 
 shewn in the processes of Evolution may not be 
 considered as based on unsound premises, it will 
 be desirable to point out the untenableness of 
 the present theological position, as well as the 
 grounds upon which Evolution is founded ; and 
 which will, let us hope, be soon recognised as 
 incontrovertible by all who seek the truth in 
 earnest. Until comparatively recent times the 
 Book of Genesis was supposed to reveal in its 
 first chapter an explicit account of the origin of 
 Living Things, namely, by direct Creative Fiats 
 of the Almighty. All the known animals and 
 plants being far fewer than at the present day, 
 their differences were more pronounced than 
 their resemblances. Each animal and plant was 
 observed to bring forth its offspring "after his 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 3 
 
 kind," generation after generation, without any 
 noticeable change. Any other animals than 
 those now living on the globe were never con- 
 ceived. Fossil shells were supposed to be either 
 deep-sea creatures thrown up upon the beach, 
 or, if found on land and upon hills, easily ac- 
 counted for by the Deluge. 
 
 Every living thing was believed to have been 
 created at once by the Word of the Lord: and 
 all within the space of six literal days. 
 
 When Geology came to be studied with some 
 philosophic spirit, it was soon discovered that 
 many fossils were not of living species ; that six 
 days was incontestably too short a period to 
 account for geological phenomena ; that a flood, 
 even if conceded to have been universal, was 
 unable to solve many a problem of disturbance 
 and stratification. Moreover it was perceived 
 that the Earth's structure was separable into 
 several strata; and that each stratum contained 
 a group of fossils unknown either in the stratum 
 above or below it ; and upon this discovery was 
 based the principle, that disconnected strata 
 
 I 2 
 
THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 might be recognised by the identity of their 
 organic remains. In addition to these facts the 
 phenomena now known as dislocation, contortion, 
 upheaval, unconformability and others frequently 
 occurred, and apparently often during periods 
 intervening between the deposition of strata. 
 
 These latter appearances, taken into consider- 
 ation with the daily phenomena of Volcanic Ac- 
 tion, induced the Geologist to conceive, and the 
 Theologian to adopt, the theory of successive 
 creations after cataclysmic and predetermined 
 destructions of all existing life by the Almighty: 
 while to meet the now well-established truth of 
 almost infinite ages having elapsed, the Theolo- 
 gian adopted the interpretation of Ages for 
 the Hebrew word Yom or Day. If, however, 
 the first chapter of Genesis be read without any 
 reference to or thought of geological discoveries, 
 and the first three verses of the second chapter 
 be carefully compared with the fourth Com- 
 mandment, it will not appear how any notion of 
 an indefinite time can be given to the word 
 'Day' at all. The writer of Genesis (as I 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 5 
 
 have expressed elsewhere 1 ) seems to signify 
 a Day in the ordinary sense and apparently 
 without any conception of indefinite periods 
 at all. 
 
 Geology ceased not to pursue her avocations 
 steadily and uncompromisingly. 
 
 The study of the rocks soon brought to light 
 a large increase of the number of strata: so 
 that at the present day there are thirteen ' form- 
 ations,' embracing thirty-nine principal 'strata/ 
 the strata themselves being often subdivided 
 into minor ones. If therefore the miraculous 
 re-creations be true they must have been very 
 numerous. But with the discovery of additional 
 strata a larger insight was obtained into the 
 distribution in time of animal and vegetal 
 life. It was then discovered that these 'created 
 groups' were not so rigidly defined as at first 
 supposed, and consequently the rule established 
 by Geologists themselves can only be applied 
 
 1 Genesis and Geology, A plea for the Doctrine of Evolution. 
 A Sermon: Hardwicke; in which the idea of six Visions is 
 reservedly suggested Cf. Testimony of the Rocks, by Hugh 
 Miller. 
 
THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 cautiously in attempting to parallel distant 
 strata : though some species appear to charac- 
 terize strata respectively, yet many range up 
 and down through other than those in which 
 they attain their maximum development or of 
 which they may be especially characteristic. 
 
 Two difficulties thus arose : the increase of 
 miraculous interferences seemed to increase pro- 
 portionately their improbability; especially as 
 there was no corroboration this time from the 
 Word of God ; while the fact of species ranging 
 through several strata threw another stumbling- 
 block in the way of the cataclysmic theory ; for 
 either they must have been re-created two or 
 three times, or else lived through the supposed 
 cataclysms considered as designed methods of 
 destruction. 
 
 Another class of phenomena now appeared, 
 to shew a still greater difficulty in the way 
 of belief in the Creative hypothesis. Zoology, 
 Botany, as well as Palaeontology, gradually 
 increased the number of living and extinct 
 forms almost indefinitely; and in proportion 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 7 
 
 as fresh discoveries were made, so it was 
 found that numbers of forms took up positions, 
 when classified, intermediate to other forms 
 hitherto well distinct 'osculant' or interca- 
 lary forms as they are called. These often 
 increased so much, that even genera well marked 
 at first became blended together by transitional 
 or intermediate forms. 
 
 Hence it has come to pass, from the result of 
 this discovery, that so far from Forms or Types 
 of organisms being easy and of a precise cha- 
 racter, in accordance with the idea of each being 
 well defined after his kind, systematic Zoology 
 and Botany are the most difficult tasks a natural- 
 ist can undertake. Here, then, an overwhelming 
 difficulty, only to be fully appreciated by a 
 really scientific person, rises against the con- 
 ception of each kind having been specially 
 created as we see them now. Indeed it may 
 be added that the very idea of kind or species 
 has been resolved into an abstract conception 
 finding in Nature generally no more than a 
 relative existence. 
 
8 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 Fresh difficulties were still in store, which must 
 be overcome if the former theory of Creation is 
 to obtain any longer Horticulture, Floriculture, 
 Agriculture, and the Breeding of Animals have 
 rapidly risen to become important and flourish- 
 ing occupations. From their pursuit it was soon 
 discovered that kinds reproducing their like 
 never did so absolutely, but that offspring appear- 
 ed always to differ from their parents in some 
 trifling if not considerable degree. This pro- 
 perty of Nature, to which also the human race 
 is invariably subject, Man has seized upon, 
 and by judicious treatment can almost mould 
 his cattle to whatever form he pleases, or stock 
 his fields and gardens with roots of any form 
 or with flowers of any shade of colour required. 
 After many years of successful propagation, 
 generation after generation, we have now 
 arrived at the result that animals and plants 
 can be produced by careful breeding and selec- 
 tion, which, had they been wild, our earlier 
 naturalists would have undoubtedly regarded as 
 having been respectively created at the beginning 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 9 
 
 of the world ! Here then we have a practical basis 
 of argument to account for the many transitional 
 forms which Geology reveals in the past history 
 of the world, as well as amongst the plants 
 and animals living at the present day. 
 
 Yet another fact may be mentioned. Geo- 
 graphical Botany and Zoology began to be 
 studied as travellers stocked our Museums and 
 Herbaria with an ever-increasing number of 
 beings brought from all parts of the world ; and 
 the, so to say, capricious distribution of identical 
 forms in far distant places now explicable on 
 the theory of migration and subsequent isolation 
 as well as the appearance of representative 
 forms of allied though different kinds in certain 
 districts, explicable only on the theory of de- 
 scent with modification, have a strong prima 
 facie appearance against the theory of individual 
 creations, even if Geology did not furnish un- 
 doubted evidence of very frequent interchanges 
 between land and sea having taken place. 
 Without at present giving more reasons, the 
 above will be sufficient to shew cause why 
 
10 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 Science has found herself compelled to secede 
 from the cramping toils of the Creative hypo- 
 thesis, and to take up that of the Evolution of 
 Living Things as better explaining all the fore- 
 going phenomena. In proportion as the proba- 
 bility of the former was seen to decrease, so in 
 the same degree does -that of Evolution in- 
 crease. Hence, at the present day the argu- 
 ment in favour of development of species by 
 natural laws may be stated in the following 
 terms, viz., * It is infinitely more probable that 
 all living and extinct beings have been deve- 
 loped or evolved by natural laws of genera- 
 tion from pre-existing forms, than that they 
 with all their innumerable races and varieties 
 should owe their existences severally to Creative 
 Fiats.' 
 
 But even now asks the Theologian, Does not 
 this theory controvert the Bible, for we are 
 distinctly told that God created everything after 
 its kind ? 
 
 In reply it may be confidently shewn that 
 the Theologian cannot be sure of the value of 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. II 
 
 his interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis, 
 at least so far as he attempts to draw scientific 
 deductions from it. Thus it may be observed 
 to him that the words ' create ' and ' make ' are 
 used indifferently ; that no definition is given to 
 ensure accuracy as to their right interpretation. 
 It is not stated whether God created out of 
 nothing or out of eternally or at least pre-exist- 
 ing matter. Moreover, in addition to the state- 
 ment that God created or made all things, there 
 is the oft-repeated assertion embodied in the 
 word Fiat, but apparently overlooked, that He 
 enjoined the Earth and the Waters to bring 
 forth living forms. What does this expression 
 imply ? 
 
 The use of the imperative mood can only 
 signify an agent other than tlie speaker. If 
 therefore it be maintained that the sentence 
 (ver. 21) "God created every living thing that 
 moveth " signifies He made them by His direct 
 Almighty fiat, it may be equally maintained 
 that the sentence "Let the waters bring forth 
 abundantly every moving creature " implies 
 
12 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 secondary agents to carry out the will of the 
 Lord. Such might be said to witness to natural 
 law, which, after all, is but a synonym for the 
 will of God. 
 
 The real basis of the controversy between 
 Dogmatic Theology and this deduction of 
 Science is simply this : The former has es- 
 tablished a creed based upon erroneous impres- 
 sions derived from Scripture, and, from having 
 had power in former days to enforce its opinions, 
 they were credulously received without hesita- 
 tion as long as no one dared to or even could 
 controvert them. It is the reluctance to sur- 
 render this power to Science as much as the 
 idea of her offering any opposition to Theology 
 that urges at least one body so obstinately to 
 resist her advances. Nearer home the opposition 
 rests more on the latter ground ; and it will not 
 be until the representatives of our Theology can 
 see and confess their false impressions of the 
 meaning of the first chapter of Genesis, that the 
 doctrine of Evolution can be hoped to make any 
 great progress amongst them. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 13 
 
 Let us briefly review their false positions. 
 They first clung to the 'six days of Creation;' 
 they found they were compelled to surrender 
 the idea and immediately adopted the inter- 
 pretation of Yom signifying an indefinite period. 
 Again, notice their readiness in adopting the 
 theory of cataclysms and re-creations, a second 
 time to the detriment of Genesis, which furnishes 
 no warrant for the idea ; for even if six days be 
 presumed to represent six cataclysms, Geology 
 furnishes no corresponding evidence. It was a 
 pure fiction altogether. And even now they 
 steadily oppose the doctrine of Evolution. But 
 surely as each stronghold of Theology has been 
 quietly taken by Science not so much by 
 offensive attack as by undermining and leaving 
 the edifice to crumble of itself the tardy and 
 ungracious capitulations hitherto offered only 
 ensure the ultimate surrender a matter of 
 patient expectation. A time will shortly come 
 when the Creative theory must succumb alto- 
 gether, and the doctrine (not the theory) of 
 Evolution will be as much recognised as a 
 
14 THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 
 
 fundamental truth of Science and Theology as 
 the revolution of the Earth itself. 
 
 It may be advisable to state that, in the fol- 
 lowing essay, nothing will be said as to the first 
 origin of life on this Earth ; for no evidence is 
 forthcoming from Nature, upon which even the 
 merest random speculation could be founded 1 . 
 Similarly it seems advisable to leave any ques- 
 tion of the method of development of Man from 
 the lower orders untouched ; though some con- 
 trasts will be drawn between them. 
 
 ' ! I shall also make no allusion elsewhere to Spontaneous 
 Generation; for whether it be true or not, it affords no direct or 
 indirect aid in maintaining the Theory of Evolution. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 HISTORY OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 IF we endeavour to trace the history of the 
 doctrine of Evolution, it does not appear to 
 afford much definite or scientific aspect until the 
 time of Wolff, who promulgated the theory of 
 Epigenesis in 1759 : though while doing justice 
 to him as the real precursor of the modern 
 expositors of Evolution, we must not forget the 
 names of Robinet, Bonnet, Geoffrey S. Hilaire, 
 Meckel, Lamarck, or the author of the Vestiges 
 of Creation, and lastly Mr Darwin, Mr Wallace 
 and other living authors, who have helped to 
 found the doctrine on a more scientific and 
 sounder basis. The writers of the last century 
 were for the most part too deeply imbued with 
 metaphysical ideas of subjective philosophy, 
 while objective science was too little studied in 
 
1 6 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 the exact spirit of modern days, to allow of any 
 accurate or even rational theory which could 
 meet with much or even any acceptance now. 
 It may not be unadvisable to give an instance 
 of the gross absurdities which in former days 
 were allowed to pass under the name of science. 
 In 1766 a work entitled De la Nature was 
 published at Amsterdam, written by T. B. Ro- 
 binet. It rapidly went through three editions, 
 which proves how popular it must have been. 
 In this remarkable mixture of pseudo-natural 
 science and metaphysics the author proposes to 
 accept the idea in toto of a 'chain' of beings. 
 By this he understands that all things live, 
 earth, rocks, and even stars, as well as plants 
 and animals. All things alike have sentient 
 perceptions, all grow, desire and propagate. He 
 recognises fully under the idea of desires the 
 two properties of Growth and Reproduction as 
 qualities of all things. Thus, he says, fire is 
 hungry and voracious ; it feeds on air, and if air 
 be wanting, it expires. So, too, air feeds on 
 water, while water feeds on other substances: 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. \J 
 
 and thus he accounts for such minerals as salt, 
 iron, &c. being found in mineral springs. The 
 following quotation will illustrate his style of 
 reasoning : 
 
 "I have sought for the germs of stones and 
 the vessels which contain them; nor have my 
 researches been fruitless, I have even discovered 
 how stones and minerals eject their germs. If 
 I have been unable to detect their sexes, how 
 many animals and plants are in the same condi- 
 tion. Finally we have seen an infinity of foetal 
 stones and metals in their wombs, with their 
 envelopes and placentas ; we have seen them 
 growing and nourishing them, like animals. 
 There may be stones which multiply by bud- 
 ding, as is the case with trees and some animals. 
 But observations are wanting to confirm this 
 conjecture." 
 
 Thus believing, Robinet asserts all things 
 to be organic ; and just as he would recognise 
 a crystal to be composed of molecular crys- 
 tals, each having the form and properties of 
 the whole, so an animal is composed of a vast 
 H. 2 
 
1 8 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 number of minute animals, a dog of little dogs, 
 a man of molecular men! As an illustration 
 more apposite to our theory Robinet traces the 
 transitions from a tadpole to a frog; adding, 
 however, that not only is this an instance of 
 change of one creature into another, but what 
 has certainly no affinity to the modern doctrine 
 of Evolution, that frogs can change back into 
 fishes! for thus he says : " It seems that the 
 frogs of all countries are fish or tadpoles before 
 they become frogs. It is not equally asserted 
 that in all countries the frogs change again into 
 fish, as is the case with those of Surinam, Cu- 
 ra9oa, and other parts of America. This singu- 
 lar metamorphosis of a little fish changing into 
 a frog and a frog back again into a fish offers a 
 vast field to the reflections of the naturalist.'* 
 
 These quotations will suffice to shew how 
 inaccurate must have been the observations, and 
 how crude the ideas, of certain men of science 
 a century ago. 
 
 Another instance of quite as untenable an 
 hypothesis may be mentioned. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 19 
 
 Observations upon the phenomena of descent, 
 such as the form, features, dispositions and dis- 
 eases of parents and grand-parents being often 
 reproduced in descendants, each of which takes 
 its origin in a microscopic atom or cell, gave 
 rise to the theory of Emboitement or preforma- 
 tion, i,e. that the original germ of every species 
 contained within it all the countless individuals 
 which in process of time might issue from it, 
 'boxed up' as it were potentially. 
 
 This theory found many adherents; even 
 Cuvier himself appears to have been amongst 
 them. But it was the fate of this, as of all pre- 
 vious theories, to submit to the supremacy of 
 another; and the one which completely put aside 
 the emboltement theory was that of Epigenesis 
 by Wolff, who, in the same year as Robinet, 
 propounded it in his Theoria Generationis. This 
 may be justly considered the true starting-point 
 of the history of Evolution, at least in that form 
 in which it now finds general acceptance as a 
 genuine scientific doctrine. 
 
 Wolff endeavoured to express the fact that, 
 
 22 
 
2O THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 instead of each organism being as it were in- 
 cluded in toto in previous ones, each organ arose 
 in succession upon the being or organism, having 
 been secreted from or deposited on another. 
 The general result of the theory is that every 
 part of an animal or plant is the effect of a pre- 
 existing part, and this in its turn furnishes the 
 cause of a new and succeeding part. 
 
 It will be at once conjectured from this that 
 the law of Epigenesis implies a necessary pro- 
 cess of serial development, and that all organs 
 issue in accordance with the impulses of the 
 inherent momenta of the individual. 
 
 We must notice that the idea of preconceived 
 types or plans as having entered the Mind of the 
 Creator is precluded from this consideration or 
 belief altogether. 
 
 We need not discuss further the merits or 
 demerits of a theory which scarcely meets with 
 any approbation at the present day, though it 
 cannot be denied that it closely approximates 
 to the general theory of Evolution, especially to 
 those forms which are held by Positivists and 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 21 
 
 others who do not recognise 'plans or types' as 
 indicative of a Designer or God. 
 
 The next theory worthy of notice was that of 
 Lamarck, which he produced in 1809, and which, 
 like its predecessor, had a brief day, until it was 
 revived 50 years later under the auspices of the 
 Origin of Species. 
 
 Lamarck based his theory upon the observa- 
 tion that organs become hypertrophied by use 
 and atrophied by disuse ; that a change of ex- 
 ternal conditions produces analogous changes 
 upon individuals, both animals and plants. 
 
 Now every change of environment brings 
 forward a new want which must be met by 
 the individual if it is to retain its ground and 
 propagate : and these new wants urge the being 
 to new actions and new habits. Thus organs, 
 not much used under previous conditions, obtain 
 importance, are exercised, and develop into 
 new organs. On the other hand, organs now 
 being disused become atrophied and dwarfed, or 
 disappear altogether. 
 
 Assuming, for what, by the way, there was 
 
22 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 not a shadow of foundation, that an alteration of 
 external conditions about a being may cause 
 certain organs to disappear while new ones are 
 developed, Lamarck enunciated the proposition 
 that it is not the organs of an animal which de- 
 termine its habits; but its habits which deter- 
 mine the form of the body. For example, the 
 Antelope and Gazelle were not specially en- 
 dowed with agile limbs in order to escape from 
 their enemies, but having been exposed to the 
 danger of being devoured, they were compelled 
 to exert themselves in running. This habit then 
 gave rise not only to the extreme agility so 
 characteristic of them, but actually to the slen- 
 der limbs themselves as well, upon which their 
 swiftness of running depends. 
 
 According to this theory animals and plants 
 have advanced by a graduated scale of a less to 
 a more complex state as they were successively 
 developed during the past ages of the world : a 
 priority being given to marine types over terres- 
 trial ones, which were the improved forms of 
 such aquatic kinds. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 2$ 
 
 It will be observed that this theory is directly 
 opposed to the philosophy of the ancients, who 
 imagined a golden era to have prevailed during 
 the first condition of things and that all sub- 
 lunary matters when left to themselves tend to 
 degenerate. Whereas, according to Lamarck's 
 and subsequent phases of the doctrine of Evolu- 
 tion, incipient and imperfect conditions obtained, 
 which have in turn been replaced by more spe- 
 cialised and perfect forms. 
 
 A principle of progressive improvement was 
 presumed inherent in all substances, so that inert 
 matter first acquired life, then sensation was 
 developed out of vegetative vitality. Instinct 
 and mental faculties followed; and at last by 
 the same processes what had been irrational 
 became rational. 
 
 Now, in order to overcome the difficulty of the 
 fact of myriads of creatures of all grades still 
 existing, and shewing no sign of or tendency 
 towards 'improvement,' Lamarck conceived Na- 
 ture, which he recognises as a mere instrument 
 and obliged to act according to laws impressed 
 
24 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 upon it by God, to be continually giving rise to 
 elementary rudiments of animal and vegetable 
 existence by spontaneous generation: Monads 
 according to his theory are being produced every 
 day, which in course of ages will be developed 
 into beings higher and higher in the scale of life. 
 
 Such, briefly, are the principles of Lamarck's 
 theory, the final result being the supposition that 
 Man has been developed out of the Ourang- 
 outang. The idea of spontaneous generation 
 being a fact was clearly a mere hypothesis on 
 the part of Lamarck in order to account for the 
 infusoria and other low types still existing. He 
 could not adduce any more proof than Lucretius 
 of old, who indeed was somewhat bolder in 
 his assertion, -that Nature bears natural wombs 
 attached by fibres to the surface of the ground, 
 which give rise to animals ! 
 
 It is curious to find how subsequent ages have 
 revived this idea, though now based upon more 
 scientific if not very accurate experiments. 
 
 The belief has held sway and does still over 
 many minds, though it is probably due to Pro- 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 2$ 
 
 fessor Huxley that an end has been put to the 
 controversy, let us hope, for ever: so that once 
 more spontaneous development is relegated to 
 the limbo of exploded theories. 
 
 On the other hand 'Persistence of Type' is the 
 expression now adopted to signify that probably 
 of almost every group that has ever existed on 
 the Earth, at least some forms of relatively lower 
 grade still survive ; so that examples are known 
 of organisms having undergone in their descen- 
 dants little or no change since the earliest known 
 ages of the history of life \ Lamarck's theory 
 of development as well as its subsequent exposi- 
 tion by the author of the Vestiges have both in 
 turn succumbed to that of Mr Darwin, who 50 
 years after Lamarck propounded the theory of 
 'Natural Selection' as the principal operation by 
 which Nature evolves new species. This theory 
 is too well known to call for any lengthened 
 examination in this essay. It will be sufficient 
 just to point out the facts upon which it is based. 
 
 1 Such, for example, as the Lingulella of the lower Silurian 
 strata, as well as many of the Foraminifera. 
 
 
26 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 It is an established fact that all animals and 
 plants as a rule produce far more offspring than 
 can possibly ever come to perfection 1 . The 
 lower the grade, the greater is the progeny. 
 Hence is induced an intense 'struggle for exis- 
 tence.* If therefore any, by possessing a more 
 vigorous constitution or what not, can gain an 
 ascendancy over the rest of the offspring, it will 
 live while others will die. Now it is an obvious 
 fact, that while parents in the main produce 
 offspring like themselves, that is all have a gene- 
 ral family likeness, yet these differ from their 
 parents in certain elements of their structure. 
 
 Those, then, which are 'best fitted,' survive. 
 These variations of form which some of the off- 
 spring exhibit being beneficial become here- 
 ditary and intensified, as well as give rise to 
 other changes of structure of correlative deve- 
 lopment: the general result being that changes 
 in organic forms arise to keep organisms in 
 
 1 From a calculation made by the writer, he found one plant 
 of the Foxglove yielded, in one year, more than a million and a 
 half good seeds. This is far less a number than would be in 
 the case of the spores of agarics. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 27 
 
 harmony with or in adjustment to external con- 
 ditions, and thus, gradually through successive 
 generations, new forms arise differing so much 
 from their original parent, or parents, that they 
 are pronounced to be new species. 
 
 It cannot be too strongly borne in mind that 
 all these writers are not only witnesses to the 
 deeply-rooted belief in Evolution generally, but 
 are theorists who endeavour to account for it by 
 some law of Nature. 
 
 The object of the present essay is not to 
 propound any new theory, nor to express direct 
 approbation of any or all of these theorists' 
 opinions: but simply to shew what are the evi- 
 dences for the doctrine of Evolution of Living 
 Things, and how the wisdom and beneficence of 
 God are shewn in the phenomena of creation as 
 based upon that doctrine. 
 
 It must be noted, too, how all of those theo- 
 ries have in turn fallen into abeyance except 
 that of Mr Darwin ; and there are not wanting 
 many symptoms of decay in the acceptance even 
 of his. Not only has he considerably modified 
 
28 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 his views in later editions of the Origin of 
 Species, distinctly expressing his opinion that 
 he attributed too great an influence to natural 
 selection, but even men of science such as 
 Owen, Huxley, and, at least in its application 
 to Man, Wallace himself, are either opposed to 
 it in great measure or else give it but a qualified 
 assent. Thus, it has been the fate of all theories 
 of the development of Living Things to lapse 
 more or less into oblivion. Evolution itself, 
 however, will stand the same. This is the great 
 fact of Nature, while those theories to which 
 allusion has been made are but suggestions to 
 account for it. Each theorist has caught hold of 
 some one fact in Nature and held it up as the 
 sole cause of Evolution, which is without doubt 
 the resultant of many causes, no one alone 
 being sufficient to bring it about, though each 
 has been ever playing its part in the grand 
 scheme of Development. 
 
 There is unfortunately great confusion in the 
 public mind on this subject; for many persons 
 seem to think that 'Darwinism/ the 'Develop- 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 2Q 
 
 ment hypothesis,' and 'Evolution/ are expres- 
 sions of equivalent value ; whereas the first two 
 are theories erected upon certain facts existing 
 in Nature in order to account for the third or 
 the general principle of Evolution. 
 
 To define, therefore, clearly what is to be 
 understood by the term 'Evolution' is highly 
 desirable. Briefly, then, it supposes all animals 
 and plants that exist now or have ever existed 
 to have been produced through laws of genera- 
 tion from pre-existing animals and plants respec- 
 tively; that affinity amongst organic beings 
 implies, or is due to, community of descent ; and 
 that the degree of affinity between organisms is 
 in proportion to their nearness of generation, or, 
 at least, to the persistence of common characters; 
 they being the products of originally the same 
 parentage. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that evolution or 
 differentiation is not, so to say, necessary in every 
 organism, for in many cases little or no diffe- 
 rentiation has taken place. Indeed were it not 
 for this fact the world would not now have 
 
THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 representatives of any group except the highest, 
 (unless Lamarck's idea of constantly-arising 
 monads to give birth to new successions of 
 beings be adopted!) whereas it is abundantly 
 supplied with members of every kind from the 
 humble rhizopod up to man. 
 
 This retention of character without differen- 
 tiation has been called by Professor Huxley 
 Persistence of type, and probably covers a 
 larger area of the organic world than even 
 Evolution itself! 
 
 As nothing is known of the origin of life, or 
 what the first creatures were, or indeed how life 
 arises at all, it is presumable that God was the 
 Author of it ; but that assuming Him to have 
 once created a being or beings endowed with 
 life, Evolution has produced all subsequent ones 
 in accordance with the axiom 'Life only can 
 proceed from Life/ That is to say the methods 
 of Deity in peopling this world with animals 
 and plants throughout its successive ages until 
 now, has been called Evohition by men of 
 science. It would be out of place to enter into 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 3 1 
 
 any discussion of the views of the Positivist or 
 Atheist, who ignore or deny the existence of any 
 evidence of a Creator. The writer of the present 
 essay assumes God to be the Author of Creation 
 and believes Him to have adopted Evolution 
 as the method by which He chose to bring 
 about the existence of successive orders of 
 beings until Man appeared upon the scene of 
 Life. At the same time he does not venture to 
 pronounce as to the secondary causes or instru- 
 ments by which this has been effected. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE IMPERFECTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL 
 RECORD. 
 
 IN tracing the history of life upon this world 
 it is obviously impossible to acquire any ade- 
 quate ideas of the origin of living things, if we 
 limit our observations to such only as have 
 existed within the history of man. To secure 
 anything like a complete review of life we must 
 examine every trace of its existence, possible to 
 be obtained, during the past ages of the world : 
 and argue from them as to the most reasonable 
 or probable account of their origin and ex- 
 istence. 
 
 In attempting this the first and obvious fact 
 which strikes the observation is the extreme 
 imperfection of the geological record: so that 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 33 
 
 before demonstrating what facts of Geology may 
 be considered worthy of note as supporting the 
 doctrine of Evolution, it will be very advisable 
 to preface the investigation with a distinct ex- 
 position of the several grounds for recognising 
 the great imperfection of the palaeontological 
 records. 
 
 Thus there exists the great law of dissolu- 
 tion of the 'organic' into the 'inorganic/ with the 
 consequent loss of the organism. 
 
 Now it is obvious that great differences obtain 
 in the extent of this dissolution. All soft parts 
 in general rapidly disappear; and hard parts, 
 such as bones, teeth and shells, though more 
 durable, can only be preserved under favourable 
 circumstances; consequently numerous and whole 
 groups of animals and plants have possibly never 
 left any record of their existence at all; such, 
 for example, as the Tunicata, Holothurida and 
 many Hydrozoa. 
 
 Again, dead animals are preyed upon by 
 others ; and we may notice how rare it is to find 
 the bones of birds, mammals, &c. now; while 
 
 3 
 
34 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 ordinary experience proves how little likely 
 animals are to become buried in lacustrine or 
 other deposits. 
 
 We may record here an observation by Mr 
 Darwin: th'at a large proportion of bones of 
 mammals of the tertiary period are found in 
 caves and lacustrine deposits ; while not a single 
 cave or certainly true lacustrine deposit is known 
 in the mesozoic or palaeozoic strata. 
 
 If, therefore, it be a rare thing to find the dead 
 bodies or rather skeletons of any of the millions 
 of vertebrates that die annually, how greatly is 
 the chance of discovering the few that happen 
 to have been immured, during past geological 
 ages, decreased, and how much less must this 
 chance be when we investigate the earlier strata 
 of the earth ! 
 
 The following considerations will shew this : 
 
 (i) Any particular stratum is the exact mea- 
 sure of the denudation of some previously ex- 
 isting rocks, and indicates so much loss of the 
 previous history of life which would have been 
 represented by the fossils of those lost rocks. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 35 
 
 And, as strata can be measured by miles in 
 thickness, the corresponding destructions have 
 been just as enormous 1 : not to add that the 
 materials of any stratum may have been de- 
 posited with organic remains in them, then 
 destroyed and subsequently redeposited with a 
 new set of organisms over and over again. 
 
 (2) Supposing organic remains to have been 
 preserved in deposits, to what extent has the 
 earth been explored by geologists ? The por- 
 tion of land carefully searched bears but an 
 excessively small proportion to the extent not 
 yet examined : while the sea bottom, i.e. three- 
 fourths of the entire surface of the globe, cannot 
 be searched at all. So that it is really some- 
 where about the ten-thousandth part altogether 
 which has been explored. 
 
 (3) To have a perfect series, the successive 
 strata of the whole surface should be searched 
 
 1 See this further discussed by Mr Darwin in the Origin of 
 Species, 4th ed. p. 344; though he does not observe that not 
 only is any particular stratum the exact measure of a previously 
 existing denudation, but it is only the last instance of denuda- 
 tion of that particular amount of material. 
 
 32 
 
36 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 for each period of the world's history; as 
 we may reasonably suppose that the entire 
 world was peopled with creatures successively, 
 as age after age followed each other. Hence, 
 we really want a complete series of fossils 
 not only from, each stratum in one locality 
 say Great Britain but from all parts of the 
 world. 
 
 (4) The great destruction of old land sur- 
 faces, with all the varied forms of terrestrial and 
 aerial life, causes many a hiatus which cannot 
 be refilled : so that an enormous lapse of time 
 may have occurred between the deposition of 
 two conformable strata, of which the lower had 
 furnished for ages a land surface, but which 
 subsequently became denuded by marine action, 
 and then was the recipient of a new deposit, 
 and so now bears upon its upper surface no 
 trace of any evidence of the ages that had 
 intervened between the depositions of the two 
 strata. 
 
 In vain may we seek for the old land surfaces 
 upon which the Mammalia roamed which gave 
 
EVOLUTION' OF LIVING THINGS. 37 
 
 rise to the Eocene Lophiodon, Coryphodon, Ano- 
 plotheria, and Palaotkeria* Again, where was 
 the land upon which the reptiles lived which 
 were the forerunners of the secondary Dino- 
 sauria? where are the ancestors of the Marsupials 
 of the Oolites? or again, the land which bore 
 the antecedents of the Devonian Conifers ? Not 
 until we come to the tertiary epoch and espe- 
 cially the middle and later periods do we find a 
 great abundance of terrestrial life: and it may 
 be observed it is just this very abundance which 
 furnishes the most valuable evidence in favour 
 of the doctrine of Evolution : but these remains 
 have been preserved in caves and lacustrine de- 
 posits; such being, as we have remarked, unknown 
 in strata antecedent to those of the tertiary age. 
 The old idea of the accidental discovery of 
 a new form being indicative of the creature's 
 first appearance on the earth is absurd and 
 utterly inadmissible. On the contrary, the 
 earliest observed presence of any well-defined 
 form is in itself a witness to lost, and possibly 
 a long line of lost, ancestors. 
 
38 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 Similarly we must be cautious in asserting 
 that because a certain form disappears from a 
 certain stratum which follows one in which it 
 had been abundant, that it then vanished from 
 the world altogether. The part which Migration 
 has played in distributing forms of life is of 
 immense importance in the consideration of the 
 history of life. It has been too much ignored 
 by far; and it is only by correcting our ideas 
 of the development of ancient life by the study 
 of the existing geographical distributions of ani- 
 mals and plants, that we shall guard ourselves 
 against any hasty generalizations. 
 
 Mr Darwin enters somewhat at length into 
 the discussion of the absence of intermediate 
 forms or varieties which should connect different 
 species of fossils ; and he believes that their 
 absence is due to the great imperfection of 
 the geological record. According to his theory 
 there ought to have existed many gradations 
 between any two forms well differentiated in 
 time by descent. Now it may be essential to 
 the support of the theory of * Natural Selection* 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 39 
 
 to believe such to have existed, but it is not 
 essential to the truth or acceptance of the 
 general doctrine of Evolution. Quite enough of 
 transitional or intercalary forms have existed, 
 and more than enough of living forms are to 
 be found, to support this doctrine ; or, to speak 
 more strictly, so many exist as to force them- 
 selves upon the attention of the biologist, who 
 finds no more satisfactory explanation of them 
 than the doctrine of Evolution. Though it often 
 happens that minute gradations are wanting, 
 there are indeed many grounds for thinking 
 Nature occasionally, perhaps often, proceeds by 
 'leaps' or 'sports' as well as almost insensible 
 gradations in the evolution or development of 
 species. 
 
 These considerations will prepare the reader not 
 to expect very strong or even satisfactory evi- 
 dence from Palaeontology, more especially from 
 the records of palaeozoic or mesozoic times. 
 Indeed, so fragmentary is the record, that our 
 greatest biologists have hesitated to bring for- 
 ward evidence in favour of Evolution from either 
 
4 THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 
 
 of those epochs at all ; though, as will be seen 
 hereafter, perhaps with undue timidity. 
 
 On the other hand, opponents of the doctrine 
 of Evolution invariably take their stand upon 
 this, so to say, abandoned outpost of palaeon- 
 tological ground, ignoring the existence of many 
 kinds of evidence to be deduced not only from 
 tertiary Mammalia but from living organisms 
 as well. 
 
 If now we admit thus fully that all geological 
 observation of the history of life has been ne- 
 cessarily so extremely scanty, then whatever 
 evidence it may afford in favour of Evolution 
 will be of proportionally greater value. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF VERTEBRATE 
 LIFE. 
 
 FROM the considerations given in the preceding 
 chapter, it is obvious that to expect good evi- 
 dence in favour of Evolution we must search 
 those places where the above-mentioned causes 
 of imperfection of the geological records least 
 occur. 
 
 First, then, it is clear that the later the period, 
 cceteris paribus, the better will be the chance. 
 The tertiary period will, therefore, be preferable 
 to the secondary, or primary, in consequence 
 of there having been less destructive denu- 
 dation of those kinds of deposits (especially 
 lacustrine) most favourable for the preservation 
 of the relics of terrestrial life. 
 
 Now, as a matter of fact, whether they have 
 been subject to much denudation or not, the 
 
42 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 tertiary strata do furnish us with the materials 
 we want, the Miocene and subsequent periods 
 especially having left an abundant array of fossil 
 Mammalia for investigation. 
 
 Now, the nature of the evidence supplied by 
 Palaeontology and especially by the fossil Mam- 
 malia of the tertiary epoch may be arranged 
 conveniently under the following heads. 
 
 1 . Structure or Form. The existence of ' more 
 generalized/ l average/ or ' less specialized ' 
 forms, i. e. when compared with others of the 
 groups or types, is now established. The fol- 
 lowing are good illustrations ; Anchitherium, 
 Oreodon, Ictitherium, Zeuglodon, Dinotherium, 
 &c. ; while Comgsognatha of the Dinosaurians 
 and Ichthyosaurus represent the same features 
 amongst the Reptilia of the Mesozoic ages. 
 
 2. Intercalary or intermediate forms are very 
 abundant ; perhaps more frequently to be found 
 amongst the Mollusca, simply because large 
 suites of fossils can be more readily obtained : 
 but of the Vertebrata some of those mentioned 
 above might be regarded as ' intercalary ' as well 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 43 
 
 as being much generalized. Thus e.g. Zeuglodon, 
 while bearing affinities to the Sirenia, is more 
 strictly intercalary between Seals and Cetaceans. 
 Again, there were forms called Stegodon, linking 
 Mastodon with the Elephant; while the genus 
 Hemiarctos united bears and dogs. 
 
 3. Embryonic types, and those of relatively 
 low grades, are not wanting. Thus Archegosaurus, 
 of the Carboniferous age, is at least embryonic in 
 several features, while the Labyrinthodonts were 
 not of the highest grade of Amphibians. Many 
 of the palaeozoic fishes with the persistent noto- 
 chord are other instances, while the unankylosed 
 condition of the vertebrae of Ichthyosaurus and 
 that of the epiphyses of the femur of Plesio- 
 saurus, &c. all point to the same phenomenon, 
 i.e. a permanently arrested condition of develop- 
 ment, or permanency in the adult of embryonic 
 features. 
 
 4. On the other hand, well differentiated forms 
 and highly specialized structures have existed in 
 all ages of the world that have furnished strata 
 for examination. 
 
44 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 5. More generalized fatmas existed in certain 
 localities, where more specialized ones are now 
 found; thus the Miocene fauna of Europe con- 
 tained Apes, Gazelles, Edentates, and Marsupials ; 
 types now widely dispersed. Similarly it has 
 been shewn that the Miocene fauna of North 
 America abounded in forms of more generalized 
 types than the European, while wanting in 
 many forms abundant in the Old World at that 
 age. 
 
 6. Local faunas date back to at least Post- 
 pliocene times, and are doubtless the modern 
 representatives by lineal 'descent with modifi- 
 cation' of similar faunas though of extinct forms; 
 for example, there are the Edentata of South 
 America, the Marsupials of Australia, the mixed 
 fauna of India, which may be compared with 
 a similar Miocene group of the Sewalik hills, 
 and the Struthian birds of the Southern islands. 
 
 7. Migration of types of local faunas into 
 other countries has taken place, as the Mio- 
 cene European forms are met with in Pliocene 
 American deposits. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 45 
 
 8. Homotaxial 1 life has ever existed in syn- 
 chronous strata generally throughout the world 
 in all ages. The more ancient the strata, the 
 nearer is the identity of fossils maintained in 
 separate strata of the same epoch : as e.g. in the 
 carboniferous limestone of Europe and South 
 America. 
 
 Before, however, attempting to apply these 
 principles of evidence of the probability of Evo- 
 lution being the true theory, it will be as well to 
 state generally what are the facts revealed by 
 geological discoveries as to the appearance of 
 different groups of animal life successively upon 
 the face of the globe. 
 
 It would be out of place in an essay like the 
 present to enumerate more of the various kinds 
 of animals and plants discovered in different 
 geological strata, than may be necessary for my 
 purpose of giving an outline only of palaeonto- 
 logical evidence of Evolution. 
 
 1 This signifies that " certain forms of life in one locality- 
 occur in the same general order of succession as similar forms in 
 another locality." 'Anniversary Address' by Prof. Huxley, 
 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. xxvi. p. xlii. 
 
46 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 Reference to any work on Geology will give 
 the evidence upon which the following facts are 
 stated. 
 
 Confining our attention for the present to the 
 Vertebrata alone, the remains of Fish only have 
 as yet been found in strata older than the Car- 
 boniferous; and so characteristic were certain 
 types of fish during the middle and upper palaeo- 
 zoic epochs as to give rise to the expression ' Age 
 of Fishes' as applicable to those periods. As 
 illustrations of such types may be mentioned 
 the remarkable forms, Pterichthys, Coccosteus, 
 and other ganoids : e.g. the Crossopterygidae (of 
 Huxley). 
 
 Secondly, no vertebrate of higher organization 
 than an Amphibian has ever yet been found 
 below the Permian strata : while, of the ex- 
 tinct Amphibia, there were not only numerous 
 forms but many of them gigantic in size, e.g. 
 the LabyrintJwdontia, thus entitling that age of 
 the world, viz. from the Carboniferous to Trias 
 inclusive, to be called 'the Age of Amphibia/ 
 
 Again, from the Permian to the Cretaceous 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 47 
 
 inclusive, and especially throughout the whole 
 of the Mesozoic epoch, no higher vertebrates 
 are at present known with certainty than Rep- 
 tiles, Birds and Marsupials: the first so far 
 predominating in numbers, and as regards many 
 species in size, as to justify the expression 
 'Reptilian Age' as applied to that period. 
 
 The evidence of Bird life mainly consists of 
 footprints, though some of these as on the Con- 
 necticut sandstones (if they be true Ornithicnites 
 and not reptilian) point to creatures of gigantic 
 dimensions. Others, e.g. the ArcJuzopteryx, and 
 the Ichthyornis with fish-like biconcave vertebrae, 
 assumed most remarkable forms, so that pos- 
 sibly the secondary or Mesozoic epoch might 
 have been characterized as much by Birds as 
 Reptiles ; while the abundance of the Ptero- 
 sauria, from the size of a pigeon, or even less, 
 to the extent of upwards of twenty feet across 
 the expanded wings, shews an enormous develop- 
 ment of flying Reptiles which may possibly 
 have 'represented' a considerable portion of Bird 
 life such as now obtains everywhere. 
 
THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 Lastly, on arriving at the Tertiary beds, so 
 many forms of all kinds of Mammals successive 
 groups replacing one another chronologically in 
 the various strata have been revealed by the 
 researches of geologists as quite to justify the 
 analogous phrase, 'Age of Mammals/ as descrip- 
 tive of the Tertiary period. 
 
 The evidence then, as far as it is derived from 
 geological discovery of the development of Ver- 
 tebrate life, is that each great group or type 
 became the prominent feature successively in an 
 ascending scale of organization. 
 
 If now we admit that each great type did 
 appear thus successively and assumed such nu- 
 merical proportions as to render it a conspicuous 
 feature of the life of the period, and that it 
 subsequently sank into comparative insignifi- 
 cance ; then we must examine each group by 
 itself and see how far Evolution is supported by 
 details as well as by the period of incoming of 
 the group in its entirety. 
 
 In doing this we must apply those principles 
 enumerated above to the different groups as 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 49 
 
 far as each will apply : and if we find Palaeon- 
 tology furnishing sufficient illustrations, we shall 
 be proportionally justified in regarding Evolu- 
 tion to have been the process of Nature. 
 
 If we commence with Fishes, as being not 
 only the lowest type of Vertebrates, but the 
 earliest known of that sub-kingdom, the first 
 observation will probably be, that fishes are as 
 numerous now if not more so than ever before. 
 But are existing fishes as a whole of a more 
 advanced or of a more elevated character than 
 those, say, of the Devonian period ? That 
 large and prominent groups of fishes have al- 
 most disappeared is obvious, such as the Cestra- 
 cionidae, the Chimaeridae and Ganoids generally ; 
 while the Teleostei, their modern successors, 
 far outnumber the few lingering representatives- 
 of those groups. Indeed, the question might 
 almost be put thus ; Are the Teleostei of a 
 higher grade than the Ganoidei and Elasmo- 
 branchii? 
 
 Here, then, we are brought at the very thresh- 
 old of our enquiry to discuss the exact mean- 
 H. 4 
 
5O THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 ing of 'high' and 'low' grade, or what is an 
 organ of more or less specialized character. 
 
 As in all other questions of this sort, a clear 
 distinction must be held in the mind between 
 what is absolute and what is relative', and it 
 must be remembered that the majority if not 
 all terms in biological science are relative only. 
 Now the word grade is purely relative and 
 applies to the different stages of development 
 exhibited by the various members of a Type or 
 Group : while an organ of but little specialization 
 is one which performs at least two if not more 
 functions, which are executed by separate organs 
 in more highly developed forms. 
 
 Such terms as modification and differentia- 
 tion will be found useful ; and we might qualify 
 the former as horizontal and vertical. Modi- 
 fication being the more general expression im- 
 plies change of form through descent, with or 
 without any change of function : so that 'hori- 
 zontal modification' would imply comparatively 
 slight change of form with little or no change 
 of function. Vertical modification, that is differ- 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 5 I 
 
 entiation, implies a more considerable change 
 of form, for the most part coupled with differ- 
 ence of function. 
 
 As an illustration of the former, we may take 
 the Foraminifera. In them we have the two 
 essential elements of sarcode and shell. The 
 forms of the shell are innumerable, but no other 
 differentiated elements are met with possessing 
 functions other than those peculiar to sarcode 
 and alike for all. 
 
 As an illustration of the latter, a simple in- 
 stance of modification of structure with diffe- 
 rentiation of function may be mentioned. The 
 internal -sac of the Actinozoa acts as stomach 
 and lungs, while in the next group the Mollus- 
 coida the organs have become differentiated, 
 so that a distinct alimentary canal is present 
 and a decided though humble nervous system 
 appears. When, therefore, such distinctions can 
 be clearly made out, we can judge how far 
 modification may or may not support evolu- 
 tion ; for it may be here noticed that modifi- 
 cation without differentiation, or what is here 
 
 42 
 
52 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 called horizontal modification, supports the idea, 
 of Retention of Types, while the other, i.e. true, 
 differentiation, supports the doctrine of Evolu- 
 tion. Both of these facts must be accepted by 
 the Biologist. 
 
 Fishes. 
 
 In applying these remarks to the old and 
 the existing Fishes, one feature stands out 
 especially prominent as marking a conspicuous 
 difference, and that is the 'heterocercal' tail 
 being so prevalent in the palaeozoic fishes while 
 the 'homocercal' tail prevails now. 
 
 Of this organ we may note three prominent 
 types. First the notochordal condition as in 
 Undina and Macropoma of the Devonian, Caturus 
 of the Solenhofen beds, and Lepidosiren which 
 still exists ; secondly the true heterocercal form 
 which obtains in Megalichthys and the Sturgeon; 
 and thirdly the tails of the existing Teleosteans, 
 i.e. those usually called 'homocercal/ of which 
 three varieties are seen, viz, the bifurcating tail 
 of the Salmon, the rounded form of the Wrasse, 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 53 
 
 and the pointed tail of the Conger. Now it 
 must be carefully observed that these last are 
 really 'heterocercal* anatomically, though in 
 .consequence of the development of the wedge- 
 shaped hypural bones, the external form of the 
 tail appears equal-lobed 1 . 
 
 The tail called 'diphycercal' "by Huxley ap- 
 pears more simple than any of the above, and 
 represents the archetypal or ideal condition in 
 being merely an axis tapering to a point around 
 which is the fringe-like tail 
 
 My object in discussing, perhaps at too great 
 a length, the peculiarities of the tails of fishes, 
 is to shew how greatly that important organ has 
 been altered in the different groups. Indeed the 
 entire skeleton of modern fishes might have been 
 equally discussed at length. The general result, 
 however, I would wish the reader to perceive is 
 that modern fishes are far more truly { Fish-like* 
 than their palaeozoic ancestors, and that this 
 
 1 Zeittchrift filr Wissenschaftliche Zoologie, Band 14, 1864, 
 p. 8 1. Ueber den Bau der Schwanzwirbelsiiule der Salmoniden, 
 &c. Von Theophil Lotz. 
 
54 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 change has been brought about (as illustrated 
 by the example of the tail) by the slow process 
 of Evolution. 
 
 Again we must also particularly notice the 
 frequent occurrence of the notochord amongst 
 the Crossopterygian and other palaeozoic fishes. 
 This is a very decided embryonic feature, and 
 obtains in the Lepidosiren ; though all the 
 Teleosteans have well-ossified vertebrae, and so 
 far are of a higher grade. 
 
 Now this feature of the persistence in the 
 adult stage of what is embryonic only in more 
 advanced forms of life of the same type of Ver- 
 tebrate, goes a long way towards supporting the 
 general doctrine of Evolution. 
 
 The argument derived from the study of the 
 stages through which an individual embryo passes 
 will be spoken of hereafter ; but it may be now 
 generally stated that whenever embryonic types 
 are found at all, especially when preceding more 
 highly-developed forms of the same kind or 
 family ; then, we have strong evidence in favour 
 of Evolution. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 55 
 
 In discussing the respective merits of modern 
 fishes and ancient ones, it is interesting to find 
 early representatives of the Teleostei living con- 
 temporaneously with the predominating Ganoids 
 when in their prime ; just as we have a few 
 Ganoids still surviving at the present day, such 
 as PolypteruSj Amia, Lepidosteus and Ccratodus\ 
 for Prof. Huxley has shewn that the genera 
 Coccosteus and Pterichthys, especially the former, 
 seem to have been representatives of the Siluroid 
 Teleosteans : though the persistent notochord 
 points to an embryonic state or to a lower grade 
 than that of the modern Teleosteans. 
 
 It must be noted, too, that although a maxi- 
 mum degree of development is not always 
 coexistent with numerical importance nor asso- 
 ciated with the greatest bulkiness, yet it is quite 
 en rapport with the doctrine of Evolution to find 
 the most highly differentiated fish to have ap- 
 peared so early as the Devonian epoch, while 
 many of them were of very large dimensions ; 
 and the fishes at the present day to be undoubt- 
 edly modified descendants, but assuming cha- 
 
56" THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 racters which place them in a different if not 
 lower grade than the prevailing forms of the 
 Devonian epoch. 
 
 Lastly, a comparison seems capable of being 
 drawn between the lowest of the vertebrates and 
 the lowest of the invertebrates; that just as the 
 Foraminifera have undergone an immense amount 
 of modification without much if any differen- 
 tiation into higher grades ; so, fishes have under- 
 gone a like large amount of horizontal modifica- 
 tion without much vertical differentiation. 
 
 A like comparison may be also made with 
 the Brachiopoda : for if the species of Terebratula, 
 Rhynconella or Lingula be compared, viz. the 
 earliest forms of each with the last existing; 
 it will be found that a wonderful uniformity 
 prevails, though comparatively slight variations 
 exist, which give great diversity of modification, 
 but apparently little differentiation 1 . 
 Amphibians. 
 
 Let us now turn to the Amphibia. The high- 
 est group, Batrachia, has never been discovered 
 
 . a See Life, its Origin and Succession, by Prof. J. Phillips, p. 93. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 57 
 
 in the so-called 'Amphibian age:' but this 
 group was mainly represented by gigantic 
 Labyrinthodonts. 
 
 Now these conveyed a stronger savour of old 
 piscine than of reptilian characters. Moreover 
 they were associated with, if not preceded by, 
 forms representing the other existing order, 
 Gymnophiona ; the history of which is unknown. 
 
 The Archegosaurus, however, with its per- 
 sistent notochord, and the absence of the ossified 
 occipital condyles which characterize the skull of 
 higher forms of the Amphibia, clearly points to 
 conditions embryonic, or at least of a low grade ; 
 while the details of the structure of the teeth, 
 being as it were the rudimentary conditions of 
 the Labyrinthodont type, together with the ce- 
 phalic plates of the exo-skeleton, point to the old 
 Devonian dendrodont fishes. 
 
 The Amphibia resemble fishes in the entire 
 absence of an amnion, and in possessing for at 
 least some period of their existence branchial 
 filaments. Moreover they are somewhat sharply 
 distinuished from at least birds and reptiles by 
 
5 8 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 the fact that the skull articulates with the spinal 
 column by two condyles. On the other hand, 
 those of the Amphibia which possess limbs 
 have the parts of their limbs corresponding 
 with those found in the higher vertebrates; 
 whereas this is the case with no fish. 
 
 Prof. Owen has maintained that the affinity to 
 fishes was more pronounced in the Amphibia 
 than in reptiles, though that palaeontologist 
 recognises the group as intermediate if not a 
 link between fishes and reptiles. 
 
 Prof. Owen thus speaks of them (Pal&onto- 
 logy, p. 217): "The conformity of pattern in the 
 dermal, semidermal, or neurodermal bones of 
 the outwardly well-ossified skull of Polypterus, 
 Lepidosteus, Sturio, and other Ganoid fishes with 
 well-developed lung-like air-bladders, and in the 
 same skull-bones of ArcJiegosaurus and in the 
 Labyrinthodonts ; the persistence of the noto- 
 chord and branchial arches in ArcJiegosaurus as 
 in Lepidosiren, the absence of the occipital con- 
 dyle or condyles in ArcJiegosaurus as in Lepido- 
 siren, the presence of labyrinthic teeth in Arche- 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 59 
 
 gosaurus as in Lepidosteus and Labyrinthodon, 
 the large median and lateral throat-plates in 
 ArcJiegosaurus as in Megalichthys, and in modern 
 Arapaima and Lepidosteus : all these characters 
 point to a great natural group or series, shewing 
 the gradations of development which link and 
 blend together fishes and reptiles within the 
 limits of such group. The Salamandroid (or 
 so-called 'Sauroid') Ganoids Lepidosteus and 
 Polypterus are the most ichthyoid, the true 
 Labyrinthodonts are the most sauroid of the 
 group. The Lepidosiren and Archegosaunis are 
 intermediate gradations, one having more of the 
 piscine, the other of the reptilian characters. 
 
 "The ArcJiegosaurus conducts the march of 
 development from the Ganoid fishes to the 
 Labyrinthodont type, the Lepidosiren to the 
 Perennibranchiate type. 
 
 " Both illustrate the artificiality of the supposed 
 class-distinctions between fishes and reptiles, and 
 the unity of the cold-blooded vertebrates as a 
 natural group. There is nothing in the known 
 structure of the so-named Archegosaurus or Mas- 
 
60 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 todonsaurus that truly indicates a belonging to 
 the saurian or crocodilian order of reptiles. 
 The exterior ossifications of the skull and the 
 canine-shaped labyrinthic teeth are both exam- 
 ples of the salamandroid modification of the 
 ganoid type of fishes. The Ganocephala and 
 Labyrinthodonta characterize the transitional pe- 
 riod between the palaeo- and mesozoic epochs." 
 
 Enough has now been said to shew how closely 
 the Amphibia are allied to Fishes : and that the 
 retention of piscine characters so frequently seen 
 in the fossil Amphibia is explicable on no other 
 theory than that of their gradual evolution from 
 Fishes. 
 
 Reptiles. 
 
 The next group to be considered is the Rep- 
 tilia. 
 
 The first known types (Permian Thecodonts 
 and Lacertians) are of tolerably high grade, 
 necessarily point to a lost ancestry, and might 
 be taken as witnessing to the untenableness of 
 Evolution : but, be it remembered, such a view 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 6 1 
 
 would rest solely on negative evidence, whereas 
 Evolution is based on positive evidence 1 . A 
 group of far greater importance for our purpose 
 is the Enaliosauria (Owen), of which Ichthyo- 
 saurus especially exhibits as, indeed, its name 
 reminds us a union of characters derived from 
 fishes on the one side and reptiles on the other. 
 
 Prof. Owen has remarked: "With the reten- 
 tion of characters which indicate an affinity to 
 the* higher Ganoidei, the exclusively marine 
 Reptiles more directly exemplify the Ichthyic 
 type in the proportions of the premaxillary and 
 maxillary bones ; in the shortness and great 
 
 1 It has been accepted as a reasonable hypothesis that the line 
 of passage from fishes to reptiles does not lie along the Amphibia 
 at all, but through some group of which perhaps the Lepidosiren 
 is the sole existing representative : and that the Amphibia are an 
 offshoot terminating abruptly with the order Batrachia. Although 
 having a common origin with Reptilia in the Fishes, yet the Am- 
 phibia as sharply differentiate from them in certain particulars, 
 e.g. the fact that the skull articulates with the spinal column by 
 two condyles, while the basi-occipital remains unossified. 
 
 If this be true the early ancestry of Reptiles might have been 
 developing for ages during the carboniferous and earlier epochs ; 
 but either no remains have been left, due perhaps to there being 
 neither exo- nor endo-skeleton; or else geologists have not met 
 with them. 
 
62 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 number of the biconcave vertebrae ; in the length 
 of the pleurapophyses of the vertebrae near the 
 head ; in the large proportional size of the eye- 
 ball with its well-ossified sclerotic coat ; and 
 especially in the structure of the pectoral and 
 ventral fins... Thus the Ichthyosaurus presents a 
 general type of structure more conformable with 
 that of which the Archegosaurus and Labyrin- 
 thodonts manifest the phases of development, 
 and in which the ascent from the gano-salaman- 
 droid fishes reaches its culminating point in 
 Ichthyosaurus" (Paleontology, p. 220). 
 
 Buckland in his Bridgewater Treatise shewed 
 how Ichthyosaurus possessed a generalized 
 structure, for it had "the snout of a porpoise, 
 teeth of a crocodile, head of a lizard, the bi- 
 concave vertebrae of a fish, the sternum of 
 Ornithorhyncus, and paddles of a whale!" 
 
 As points of relatively low grade may be 
 mentioned the unankylosed processes of the 
 centra ; the numerous bones of the rami of the 
 jaws;. while the teeth were arranged in long 
 furrows instead of distinct sockets. The cranium 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 63 
 
 itself, though resembling that of a dolphin, had 
 the bones by no means similarly integrated. 
 
 We have seen that while fishes and Amphibia 
 pass insensibly as it were into each other, yet 
 the change either from fishes or Amphibia to 
 reptiles is somewhat abrupt. Yet as a whole 
 the Amphibia stand intermediate between fishes 
 and reptiles. Very probably, however, they may 
 not represent the actual line of ascent to rep- 
 tiles, but are an offshoot by themselves; yet 
 when we examine the Enaliosauria we at once 
 recognise the piscine features, and as we know 
 they had no exo-skeleton and that the Amphibia 
 and older fishes often retained the notochord 
 as in the Lepidosiren of the present day, so 
 the forerunners of true reptiles may have had 
 those two features combined, would therefore 
 have left no remains at all which would escape 
 destruction, and so the hiatus would occur which, 
 as a point of fact, does exist. 
 
 Taking, however, Ichthyosaurus as we find it, 
 there are presented to our observation certain 
 affinities, which cannot be questioned, to fishes, 
 
64 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 and these have to be accounted for. Now Evo- 
 lution is suggested as more probable than the 
 Creative hypothesis, and that these affinities are 
 undoubtedly due to descent with modification. 
 
 Birds. 
 
 It is an admitted fact by all comparative 
 anatomists, that no sharp line can be drawn 
 between Reptiles and Birds ; while Prof. Huxley's 
 discoveries in the osteology of the Dinosauria 
 point with cogent force to the probable line of 
 passage from one to the other 1 . 
 
 The Archceopteryx and Ichthyornis, the sole 
 fossil representatives of mesozoic bird life which 
 afford any details for generalization : a few 
 bones in the Greensand strata, &c., and foot- 
 prints, as in Connecticut Sandstone, being all 
 the rest : point to reptilian and piscine affinities, 
 though they do not belong to the Ratitae, to 
 which the Dinosauria are affined, for the unan- 
 kylosed condition of the metacarpals of the 
 
 1 Pop. Sc. Review, Vol. VII. p. 237; and Quarterly Journal of 
 Geol. Soc. Vol. xxvi. p. 12. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 6$ 
 
 former and the great length of its tail are two 
 characters which have considerable significance. 
 
 The general result of the evidence derived 
 from the fossil remains, coupled with the points 
 of affinity between living birds and reptiles, shew 
 that there is an intimate connection between the 
 two classes, and that no sharp line of demarca- 
 tion can be drawn between them. Hence, if the 
 evidence per se may be thought at all weak from 
 want of abundance of material, as far as it goes 
 it is all in favour of Evolution ; and the very fact 
 that the only known instances of birds having 
 been preserved in the mesozoic strata should 
 show such remarkable affinities is, at least, very 
 significant and possesses a degree of importance 
 'quite unexpected. As it is, it furnishes positive 
 evidence for Evolution ; had it been otherwise, it 
 would have been negative evidence only for the 
 Creative hypothesis. 
 
 Mammals. 
 
 We have now arrived at the Mammalia, and 
 of this group we do not meet with many speci- 
 H. 5 
 
66 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 mens until we enter upon the Tertiary epoch, 
 when they suddenly burst into view in a profuse 
 and rapid succession of forms. 
 
 That all the Mesozoic mammals hitherto dis- 
 covered were probably marsupial has considerable 
 significance; and when coupled with the fact 
 that wherever Mammalia, have been found, even 
 so widely apart as England, Germany, and 
 N. America, they have always been marsupial, 
 i.e. were homotaxial in mesozoic periods, the 
 significance rises to a considerable degree of 
 importance. 
 
 It may be noted here, that a similar degree 
 attends the like discovery of Amphibia in the 
 Carboniferous to Triassic ages, in the same 
 countries as those in which marsupial life seems 
 to have been homotaxial. On the other hand, 
 an absence of all other kinds of Mammals in the 
 first case, and of many Reptiles in the other, 
 must not be forgotten. 
 
 It could not perhaps be maintained that such 
 discoveries point to Evolution further than that 
 they hint at the incoming of the higher forms of 
 
EVOLUTION' OF LIVING THINGS. 6/ 
 
 life respectively, which should culminate and 
 take their position at the head of creation when 
 the Amphibian and Reptilian ages should have 
 passed away. 
 
 As soon, however, as tertiary strata are inves- 
 tigated, whether in this continent or in America, 
 such an abundance of Mammals is at once 
 revealed as to give a more certain note as to the 
 probability of Evolution being true, in their case 
 at least, rather than the old Creative hypothesis. 
 
 It will not be out of place to pass in general 
 review some few of the principal types of mam- 
 malian life that prevailed during the successive 
 tertiary periods. 
 
 In the earliest periods of the Tertiary epoch, 
 very generalized forms have been discovered in 
 both continents ; such forms are Lophiodon, 
 Coryphodon and Hyracotherium ; in the first 
 two of which are, as it were, blended the well- 
 differentiated structures of Artiodactyla and 
 Perissodactyla, the 'even toed' and the ' odd 
 toed ' groups, so thoroughly distinct now. 
 
 The Palaeotheridae of Eocene and Lower Mio- 
 
 52 
 
68 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 cene times well illustrate intercalary forms in an 
 apparently strict line of descent, for they are 
 succeeded by the Paloplotherium, Anchitherium 
 (in America), Hipparion (Europe), and Equus, 
 forming a true successional series by differentiated 
 modifications by descent, which renders the truth 
 of Evolution a moral conviction. 
 
 Again, the Hyracotherium of Lower Eocene 
 appears to have given rise, or at least shews 
 affinity, to the Ch&ropotamus of the Upper 
 Eocene. This in turn finds modification in the 
 Anthracotherium and Pal&ocJuzrus of the Lower 
 Miocene, and in turn passes upwards into 
 Dicotyles of to-day, which is akin to another 
 descent, Pigs, from the same source. 
 
 A similar result is obtained if we trace the 
 apparent line of descent of the Rhinoceridae ; so 
 numerous have been the forms throughout the 
 Tertiary epoch. 
 
 Similarly, with regard to the Proboscidia, 
 while there are but two species of existing 
 Elephant, there have been discovered at least 
 forty species of Mastodon and Elephas together, 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 69 
 
 including the intercalary forms linking these 
 genera. 
 
 Another remarkable illustration may be taken 
 from the Carnivora. The form Ictitheriiim of 
 the Upper Miocene of Pikermi had characters 
 which combined the two now well-recognised 
 sub-orders, Viverridae and Hyaenidae, represented 
 by the living Civets and Hyaenas 1 . 
 
 It is ascertained that about four-fifths of the 
 fossil Eocene fauna belonged to the Perissodac- 
 tyla, while one-fifth only is to be referred to 
 the Artiodactyla. On the other hand, while the 
 latter group is very abundant now, there are 
 only three genera, excluding Hyrax, which still 
 survive, viz. Rhinoceros, Tapirus, and Equus. 
 
 In thus reviewing the successive groups of 
 Mammals, the most remarkable feature that 
 the Palaeontologist cannot fail to notice is the 
 presence, so frequent is it, of intercalary or 
 intermediate forms. 
 
 1 Absolutely trustworthy tables of descent cannot be made, 
 but the above (taken from Mr Gaudry's work) shew strongly in 
 favour of 'descent with modification.' 
 
THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 Now it is again and again urged by the oppo- 
 nents of the doctrine of Evolution, that they 
 are absolutely wanting in the geological records. 
 This is simply a misstatement of facts. Oppo- 
 nents seem always to be alluding to minute varia- 
 tions from a typical species ; referring tacitly 
 perhaps to Darwin's theory of Natural Selection. 
 But as far as the doctrine of Evolution is con- 
 cerned, it is not that we look for intermediate 
 forms in order to support the doctrine ; it is that, 
 finding such intercalary structures, the Evolu- 
 tionist believes them to be more probably due 
 to a community of descent than to any other 
 cause. If minute gradations are to be found 
 and they do occasionally if not often occur 
 then they strengthen the reason for believing 
 such to have been their origin, though are not 
 absolutely necessary; for I do not pronounce 
 as to the methods Nature has adopted in 
 producing forms of life, but simply endeavour 
 to bring forward facts, and to draw the most 
 rational conclusion from them ; that being ex- 
 pressed by the word Evolution. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 71 
 
 Indeed, the existence of intercalary forms, or 
 of beings partaking of characters belonging to 
 two or more different animals, is a feature per- 
 fectly well known both to the Naturalist and 
 the Palaeontologist, including under the first, 
 students of existing forms of life. We have 
 already seen that Fishes and Amphibia are 
 linked together, and although there is a sharper 
 line in some respects between Amphibia and 
 Reptiles, yet they are decidedly akin to one 
 another. Reptiles, again, cannot be separated 
 from Birds ; while the Ornithorhyncus seems to 
 be the last remnant of the line of ascent between 
 Reptiles and Mammals. 
 
 In the next place, if we consider individual 
 genera, the following will illustrate intercalary 
 or combining forms as having existed previously 
 to the Tertiary epoch : A rchegosaurus, Ichthyo- 
 saurus, the Ornithoskelidce and Compsognatha ; 
 but in the tertiary strata they become, as we 
 have seen, far more numerous : for example, 
 Lophiodon, Zeuglodon, Oreodon, Ictitherium, and 
 MesopitJiecus ; while Metarctos, Amphicyon and 
 
7 2 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 Hemicyon, and others combined Dogs and Bears. 
 Hipparion was an obvious link between the 
 Palceotherium and Equus, and Helladotherium 
 united Giraffes with Antelopes. Finally Zeuglo- 
 don linked Cetaceans with Seals ; and Oreo don 
 Ruminants with Pigs. 
 
 In North America, the discovery of numerous 
 forms of mammalian life has shewn features iden- 
 tical in character, though even more strongly 
 pronounced than is the case with those of 
 Europe, viz. in being for the most part less 
 specialized in the earlier strata than in the 
 subsequent ones. As a most remarkable illus- 
 tration of a highly generalized form, and which 
 at the same time is intercalary between Pigs 
 and Ruminants, is the Oreodon. It possessed 
 the molar teeth of ruminants, the ulna and 
 radius of a hog, the cranial and temporal regions 
 of a camel, and in other respects resembled the 
 Cervidce. 
 
 Similarly, the Elotherium linked the existing 
 hog-peccary and hippopotamus. 
 
 Such, then, is somewhat of the evidence in 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 73 
 
 favour of Evolution, derived from the study of 
 the mammalian forms of the Tertiary epoch. In 
 other words, fossils exhibit certain remarkable 
 features which are represented by the expres- 
 sions, 'more or less generalized or specialized 
 structure,' ' average forms/ 'transitional or in- 
 tercalary features/ &c ; and the generally re- 
 ceived idea is that this has come about by 
 community of descent with modification, or, 
 what is termed, differentiation the general pro- 
 cess being called Evolution. 
 
 It may be observed that whenever consider- 
 able numbers of specimens of a particular type 
 or group have been found, there are sure 
 to be many forms, which can be selected as 
 exhibiting such transitional features between two 
 or more well-marked forms, and linking together 
 either contemporaneous or successive beings. 
 
 Now it cannot be denied that these intercalary 
 forms are best accounted for by the theory of 
 Modification by Descent, or Evolution : for 
 though, as Prof. Huxley remarks, it is impossible 
 to say which of three forms gave rise to the 
 
74 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 others, or whether all three may not have risen 
 from a fourth which preceded them ; yet the fact 
 of each form not being, as it were, a decided 
 entity of itself and well distinct from any 
 other frequently there is a closeness of agree- 
 ment between them and not unfrequently are 
 they connected by minutely transitional forms 
 shews strongly in favour of Evolution or 
 Community of Descent; and this is all that 
 the doctrine contends for. 
 
 It is perhaps desirable to note a difficulty 
 that might be felt in the discovery of a highly 
 generalized form in a later period than that in 
 which the specialized structures, combined in it, 
 had already become differentiated in separate 
 individuals. 
 
 The explanation is simple enough. It is 
 this : that such generalized forms continued 
 to transmit to their descendants their own 
 characters without any or with but slight mo- 
 difications ; while the particular causes which 
 produced differentiation elsewhere were never 
 brought to bear upon their individual posterity. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. ?$ 
 
 Moreover, the more generalized the form the 
 more presumably probable is it that it may 
 continue to live with others differentiated from 
 it : for as a rule generalized forms would be 
 more adaptable to a variety of conditions and 
 consequently less liable to extermination. 
 
 It may be desirable to conclude this portion 
 with the following observation. 
 
 In speaking of types appearing successively 
 in order of development, it must be under- 
 stood that such order refers only to types 
 which can be presumably arranged in a lineal 
 series : while two or more parallel series might 
 have existed cotemporaneously which had the 
 same origin or parentage. Thus, the Ptero- 
 sauria and Dinosauria are two geologically 
 cotemporaneous groups or series of Reptiles, 
 the former terminating with itself ; the other 
 possibly becoming the line of passage into Birds, 
 which in turn has terminated that series : a third 
 line, to which perhaps the Ornithorhyncus may 
 point, has probably given rise to Mammals. 
 
 It would seem not out of place to state here 
 
? THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 
 
 what may have been the origin of these as well 
 as Invertebrate Types, for we have seen that 
 Geology lends strong support to the idea of 
 each type having come in successively and 
 having taken as it were a place at the head of 
 creation. So that, as types are only strongly 
 pronounced grades or differentiations, it may 
 be perhaps correct to say that want of com- 
 petition, or a more perfect freedom from a 
 struggle for existence, may have given rise to 
 types. If this be true, it will apply amongst 
 other things to the isolation of the genus Homo* 
 A chapter on Man will be found further on. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 INVERTEBRATE TYPES. 
 
 IF the fact be considered established that the 
 great groups of Vertebrate life succeeded each 
 other so as to become the leading representatives 
 of the animal creation successively in an ascend- 
 ing scale of organisation, then, on the same 
 principles, we may reasonably expect to find the 
 highest group of the Invertebrates to have arrived 
 at its culminating era in the lowest Palaeozoic 
 ages or even long before them. 
 
 Now we may first notice that for invertebrate 
 development we have an enormous period at 
 our disposal ; for the thickness of the Cambrian 
 and Laurentian strata is probably greater than 
 all the strata overlying them put together. 
 
THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 Now as a matter of fact we do find the Mol- 
 lusca at the Silurian epoch to have arrived at 
 a maximum of development in their Cephalo- 
 poda, numerically and in bulk if not in differ- 
 entiation of structure 1 . Here, then, one supposed 
 stronghold of the opponents to the theory of 
 Development that, according to them, no such 
 high and perfect types should have existed at 
 that age is on the contrary one of the strongest 
 proofs of Evolution, It shews that probably 
 the huge Cephalopods were conjointly with 
 crustaceans (e.g. Euripteridce) the sole predacious 
 monsters of the deep of that age. At all events 
 we find these types excessively abundant and 
 characteristic of those times, and, according to 
 the views of Evolution advanced in these pages, 
 it is just what one would have expected 2 . 
 
 1 It has lately been shewn that the many forms of straight 
 and uncoiled nautilidcz represent more or less undifferentiated 
 conditions of young nautili. 
 
 2 Although opponents of the theory of Evolution so often 
 point to palaeozoic ages as affording no evidence in support of 
 it, yet since large suites of Trilobites, and numerous forms of 
 Crustaceans have been found, some significant tables of descent 
 have already been attempted. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 79 
 
 The Laurentian strata are too barren to reveal 
 the progress of the other kinds of Molluscs : but 
 it may be borne in mind that as the highest 
 group, Cephalopoda, were expected to be and 
 actually were the main feature of the early 
 palaeozoic, we should expect to find all other 
 and lower forms of Molluscs not to add all other 
 still lower forms of life differentiated long be- 
 fore, and their representatives living cotempo- 
 raneously with the Cephalopods, as in fact is 
 exactly the case. 
 
 On the other hand, comparing palaeozoic in- 
 vertebrates with mesozoic and recent forms, it 
 is a well-recognized fact that they are all, with- 
 out exception, of inferior grades. 
 
 Descending the scale of life we find that the 
 two laws of maximum of bulk and lowness of 
 grade will at least hold good with the earliest 
 known fossil, viz. in the gigantic Rhizopod, 
 Eozoon Canadense. 
 
 Of many groups of Invertebrata few or no 
 records are to be found, and consequently one 
 can argue nothing directly, such as of insects, 
 
SO THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 &c. And therefore, because they and other 
 large groups may now furnish well-differentiated 
 sub-groups, genera and species, there is nothing 
 to warrant the statement that such existing 
 types nullify Evolution. Such a supposition can 
 only be based on the negative assumption that 
 intermediate or intercalary forms never existed. 
 But the frequent discovery of such in other 
 groups better capable of being preserved, as 
 the Molluscs and the Tertiary Mammals, tends 
 to support the belief of the probability, if not 
 moral certainty, of their having once existed. 
 
 With regard to intercalary forms among at 
 least certain of the Invertebrata, the evidence 
 exists probably in more instances than amongst 
 the Vertebrata : for whenever large suites of 
 fossils, of forms approximating each other, can 
 be procured, minute gradations will very gene- 
 rally be found. 
 
 It is only when a few only have been dis- 
 covered that differences are conspicuous, and so 
 genera and species are made: but as soon as 
 large numbers are procured, the supposed species 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 8 1 
 
 often vanish as distinct entities, and not unfre- 
 quently the genera disappear too. Thus, of 
 species of Molluscs, Mya arcnaria and Mya 
 iruncata blend together through intercalary and 
 intermediate contemporary forms. And as an 
 example of genera differentiated from a common 
 stock may be mentioned the two well-marked 
 forms, Purpitra lapillus and Fusus antiquus, so 
 distinct at the present day ; yet they appear to 
 blend together by intercalary forms in the Red 
 Crag deposit 1 . 
 
 As a matter of fact all conchologists appre- 
 ciate the same difficulties of classification as are 
 felt by the botanist. Like genera amongst 
 plants, whenever large suites of shells are pro- 
 curable whether living or fossil, species apparently 
 very distinct when seen apart, are frequently 
 found to be united by a host of intercalary 
 forms. 
 
 For example, any one critically examining the 
 immense number of Tercbratulcz of the Oolites, 
 
 1 I am indebted to Mr E. Charleworth for calling my 
 attention to this fact, which I have since tested. 
 
 H. 6 
 
82 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 the Fuel and Volutes of the Eocene, Ttllina of 
 the Crags, &c., will soon discover how hopeless 
 a task it is in many cases to distinguish the 
 species satisfactorily. 
 
 That several groups of the Invertebrata have 
 remained from the earliest ages without much 
 or even any differentiation is in no way adverse 
 to the theory of development. Thus of Corals, 
 they have changed to some extent in form ; 
 whole groups having disappeared, such as the 
 Rngosa, while others have taken their place ; but 
 the modern corals do not exhibit much differen- 
 tiation or advance in structure over the palaeozoic 
 forms. The same remark applies to the Forami- 
 nifera and sponges. 
 
 This feature of retention of type is to be found 
 in many groups of life, including plants : thus 
 amongst the carboniferous flora the ferns agree 
 in all essential features with modern ones, 
 even if some genera (e.g. Pecopteris) be not 
 still living ! Similarly the fructification of Ca- 
 lamites closely agrees with that of Equisetum, 
 while Mr Carruthers has shewn how exact is 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 83 
 
 the similarity between Flemingites and Lyco- 
 podium as well as that between Triplosporites 
 and Selaginella (Sc. Opinion, 1869, p. 150). 
 
 Retention of type is a principle as wide in its 
 bearings as Evolution, and must be fully recog- 
 nized and appreciated by any exponent of the 
 history of life. For, while Evolution or modifi- 
 cation by descent accounts for all the variety of 
 forms of animals and vegetables, yet persistence 
 or retention of type, with or without ' horizontal 
 modification/ accounts for the fact of lower grades 
 and types coexisting with higher and more 
 perfectly differentiated forms. 
 
 These two principles of Nature must be ac- 
 cepted conjointly, otherwise only a partial view 
 of the phenomena of Nature will be obtained, 
 and the real truth as to Nature's methods will 
 be greatly obscured. 
 
 62 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 NEGATIVE EVIDENCE. 
 
 IF we now regard the successive appearance of 
 vertebrate types as in any way corroborative 
 of the theory of Evolution, we must bear in 
 mind that the earliest fish, amphibian, or reptile, 
 that may have been discovered, is not always 
 of low organization relatively to the group of 
 which it is a member. And, if Evolution be 
 true, those individuals, such as the Thecodonts 
 of the Permian or the Onchus of the Silurian, 
 must be tacit witnesses to a line of ancestors 
 of unknown length. In other words, we have 
 no grounds for presuming each successive type 
 or group to have come into existence abruptly, 
 but rather that it overlapped as it were the 
 culminating period of the group next below it 
 in type. 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 85 
 
 It is worth while, therefore, to repeat the 
 necessary caution not to overrate the value of 
 negative evidence. All that can be contended 
 for is, that geological discoveries hitherto lead 
 us to suppose that each great group of verte- 
 brate types became in turn the characteristic 
 feature of animal life ; and they were so chiefly 
 in the t\vt) phases of numerical preponderance 
 and of bulk: not however necessarily being repre- 
 sentatives of relatively high grade in structure, 
 though this may sometimes have been the case. 
 Thus sharks appear to have been a prominent 
 piscine type in former days, and the allies of the 
 sturgeon are not of low development, while at 
 the present day the Teleosteans which furnish 
 the predominating types, if not somewhat de- 
 graded, are not much differentiated. On the 
 other hand, there is no evidence as yet of the 
 true Batrachia, or highest form of Amphibia, 
 until the Triassic period is long passed. 
 
 The fact that at least some one or more 
 members of each group should culminate in 
 size or bulk at some period of its evolution 
 
86 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 appears to be a very significant fact ; for a justi- 
 fiable inference may be drawn from it, namely, 
 the probable absence of any intense struggle for 
 existence with other animals of equal size and 
 ' strength, while the negative evidence of such 
 animals never having been found supports the 
 idea. Again, homotaxy points in the same 
 direction ; for although it might be urged that 
 bulky animals of one kind might have lived at 
 one spot, but smaller ones elsewhere might have 
 been associated with large ones of a different 
 kind, yet it must be remembered that while 
 large Amphibia lived in England, others as 
 large lived in America. The same is true of the 
 mesozoic reptiles, including gigantic Pterosauria. 
 With reference to the Mesozoic reptiles we may 
 remember that the lowest forms of Mammalia 
 the Marsupialia and Edentata did not attain 
 their maximum of development, as far as bulk 
 is concerned, until probably a very late tertiary 
 period; thus indirectly leaving us to assume that 
 there were no other mammals of equal size to 
 compete with those reptiles. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 8 7 
 
 The bulkiness of an animal per se depends 
 probably upon abundance of food and ease in 
 procuring it, yet so true is the law of develop- 
 ment in growth to a maximum, and then of 
 decrease to smaller dimensions, that it seems 
 dependent upon some far-extending principle 
 which affects all creation, plants as well as animals. 
 
 A few illustrations will recall this fact to 
 mind. The Eozoon is a gigantic rhizopod. In 
 the early palaeozoic ages were gigantic Cepha- 
 lopods and Crustaceans. Enormous Fishes then 
 succeeded, to be followed, in the ages which 
 linked the primary to the secondary epoch, by 
 huge Amphibia. 
 
 Then again huge Reptiles, marine, terrestrial, 
 and aerial, followed, only to disappear and yield 
 their place to Mammals, many of which vastly 
 surpassed in bulk their representatives of to- 
 day, such as the Megatherium as compared 
 with sloths, the Dinornis amongst Birds, and 
 the large Marsupials of Australia, and lastly, if 
 Genesis reports truly, man himself was* subject 
 to the same law; for we are distinctly told 
 
88 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 " there were giants in those days," an expression 
 evidently implying much more than the merely 
 casual occurrence of them as is often the case 
 now. 
 
 Similarly has this law governed at least cer- 
 tain of the groups of plants, for the Lycopo- 
 diacese and Equisetaceae of the present day 
 cannot boast of members of anything beyond 
 humble herbs ; yet we know of what importance 
 their gigantic prototypes were in the carbo- 
 niferous era. 
 
 This law, therefore, of attainment to the 
 maximum degree of bulk points in part to a 
 want of a struggle for existence, i.e. to an absence 
 of other forms of life of equal size, and therefore 
 is an indirect witness to the statement that at 
 the period of its greatest abundance each group 
 was, so to say, at the head of creation : and 
 that as the next type already begun long 
 before the preceding had waned or perhaps 
 begun to wane developed, multiplied, and, fol- 
 lowing the same law, gradually replaced the pre- 
 ceding, and took its turn as supreme. 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 89 
 
 There is yet another fact worthy of note 
 which applies at least to the Reptilia, and which 
 would seem to confirm the suspicion that few 
 other animals of a higher grade existed contem- 
 poraneously with them. 
 
 Whenever a balance of life is to be maintained 
 amongst a variety of mammalian forms at the 
 present day or in the tertiaries, it has always 
 been effected by the carnivora keeping down 
 the herbivora ; but where a single type prevails, 
 certain members of that type assume the car- 
 nivorous forms and functions, e.g. the Dasyures 
 amongst the Marsupials of Australia represent 
 the carnivorous type ; the Bandicoots, the 
 insectivorous : the Phalangers simulate the 
 Quadrumana, while the Wombat has the peculiar- 
 ities of a Rodent ; the Kangaroos, of the Rumi- 
 nants ; and Antechinus minntissimns affects the 
 form and habits of a mouse ! 
 
 So, conversely, when we find gigantic Dino- 
 saurians of almost elephantine size, terrestrial 
 and herbivorous, assuming the functions now 
 performed by large mammalian quadrupeds, 
 
9 THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 
 
 as well as many kinds of Pterosaurian reptiles, 
 from a few inches across to upwards of twenty 
 feet, supplementing if not superseding Bird-life, 
 we may with some reason infer that this com- 
 pensation of functions points to a like absence of 
 mammalian and perhaps ornithic types. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 HOMOTAXIAL LIFE. 
 
 IT will be advisable to add a few more words 
 on the principle of Homotaxis ; for this reminds 
 us that the evidence is not based upon geo- 
 logical discoveries in any one locality by itself, 
 but that wherever geologically synchronous 
 deposits have been examined in different coun- 
 tries or continents homotaxial life has ever been 
 discovered. That is to say, though no longer 
 can the notion of identity of fossils indicate neces- 
 sarily synchronous strata, nor can synchronous 
 strata be known by an identity of fossils, yet 
 representative forms will be more probably 
 found, i. e. some other genus, species or race of 
 the same group. 
 
 This law of homotaxy appears to be of more 
 
9 2 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 importance than is usually assigned to it as 
 evidential of Evolution. For, whenever abun- 
 dance of individuals of a group prevailed to a 
 considerable extent, if not to the exclusion of 
 others, we are more likely ceteris paribus to find 
 evidence of it ; and therefore we may reasonably 
 assume such groups as have been mentioned 
 to have been characteristic of their respective 
 periods. 
 
 An objection has been raised that they were 
 so of certain localities, but not necessarily of 
 periods : thus, it cannot be denied, for example, 
 that local circumstances may have determined 
 the occurrence of certain prevailing types, e.g. 
 the Amphibia frequenting the marshy districts 
 in which the coal-plants grew. But when we 
 remember that such particular examples as of 
 the Irish coal-fields at Kilkenny were neither 
 the only ones nor the most representative, but 
 that the huge Labyrinthodcnts which traversed 
 the margins of the great salt-lakes or inland 
 seas of the Triassic period stamp that transitional 
 time as specially characterized by Amphibia ; 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 93 
 
 and, moreover, when we find the law of homo- 
 taxy hold good for the same kind of animal in 
 the American strata at the same periods as is . 
 also true for all other kinds of life in their re- 
 spective strata and periods surely the inference 
 is at least strong that the true reptiles were in 
 a minority at that period when the Amphibia 
 flourished, and not so characteristic as they ; so 
 that the Amphibia were not merely character- 
 istic of place, but also of time. 
 
 In bringing forward this law of homotaxy a 
 distinction must be drawn between identical and 
 representative forms. At the present day and 
 throughout the later geological epochs, i. e. the 
 Tertiary at least, representative forms are more 
 usually found in widely separated countries, 
 though in the earlier and palaeozoic times many 
 forms appear to have had a cosmopolitan ex- 
 istence on opposite hemispheres. This law is 
 more especially true of relatively lower grades 
 of life : and as certain groups of earlier ages 
 were of lower organization than those which 
 succeeded them of the same type, e.g. the Crus- 
 
94 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 taceans and Brachiopoda, so correlative with this 
 fact is the greater tendency to diffusion without 
 much modification. 
 
 William Smith, as is well known, first pn> 
 pounded the idea of identical fossils being found 
 in distant but corresponding strata, or those of 
 the same age. But, although this cannot be 
 always maintained, yet homotaxial life will be 
 found to be true, or the fades of a fauna in 
 one part of the world closely resembles that of 
 another found in synchronous strata. Thus, the 
 Trilobites of England are 'paralleled by those 
 of America, Sweden and Bohemia, and the 
 fauna of the British carboniferous limestone 
 finds its close representatives in that of South 
 America, China and Australia. 
 
 It may be observed here, that speaking gene- 
 rally there is less diversity of form in those 
 homotaxial faunae of palaeozoic ages than in 
 later periods. In other words, the early ages 
 of the world saw more generally diffused types ; 
 and this is correlated to the fact that the more 
 diffused is a type so proportionally is the grade 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 95 
 
 low of the individuals. This is true both of 
 animals and plants. Of the latter the wide-spread 
 carboniferous forms will suffice to illustrate the 
 principle. 
 
 As we ascend the scale of life and approach 
 more modern times, faunae become more and 
 more restricted, and more representative at 
 distant places, but of similar climate and other 
 physical conditions. 
 
 We may observe also how even physical (in- 
 organic) conditions seem to correspond to these 
 laws. Lithological characters are far more uni- 
 form and more widely distributed amongst the 
 early formations than amongst the later. Thus 
 the limestones of N. American Silurian rocks 
 are undistinguishable from those of Shropshire, 
 and the carboniferous limestone has an identical 
 appearance in whatever part of the world it may 
 be observed. 
 
 Moreover, the continuance of similar physical 
 conditions appears to have been as prolonged 
 as they were generally diffused in olden times ; 
 for the thickness of the earliest strata or forma- 
 
9 THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 
 
 tions is enormously greater than that of later 
 times, which are characterized by much more 
 varied and highly developed faunae. 
 
 Thus the Lower Silurian strata alone con- 
 stitute 25,000 feet, while the entire Cretaceous 
 formation is little more than noo; and the 
 Laurentian probably equals all the subsequent 
 strata taken collectively in thickness. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION 
 FROM EXISTING BEINGS. 
 
 THE evidence advanced by Mr Darwin in his 
 Origin of Species and other works, and by Mr 
 Wallace in his contributions to the theory of 
 Natural Selection, is of course just so much 
 evidence for the general doctrine of Evolution 
 per se, when we leave out of sight that theory 
 altogether. Thus 'heredity with variation,' or 
 a general likeness in the offspring to, but 
 with individual differences from, their parents, 
 is a fact which no one will now gainsay: not- 
 withstanding that persistence of type may hold 
 good in many cases with or without any hori- 
 zontal modification at all. 
 
 Secondly, no one can pronounce to what 
 H. 7 
 
THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 degree the variations in the ofispjing may 
 amount, provided sufficient time be allowed in 
 which many and successive generations may be 
 born. 
 
 A very frequent assertion by opponents of the 
 doctrine of Evolution is that species are definite 
 and actual entities, capable of a certain range of 
 variation, but never passing into other definite 
 and actual species : though it is true they very 
 generally mean contemporaneous species. Now 
 the theory of Evolution never countenances the 
 idea of any two species, of the same relative 
 generation in descent, passing the one into the 
 other ; but if it be maintained that no true 
 species can ever give rise by descent with modi- 
 fication to another true species in a subsequent 
 generation, then the burden of proof lies with 
 the opponent. 
 
 On the other hand, not only are specific forms, 
 i.e. if seen alone, so far distinct as to be worthy 
 of the name of species, frequently united by 
 intercalary forms; but enough 
 
 has been produced by artificial cultivation or 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 99 
 
 breeding by selection^ to warrant the suppo- 
 sitiolfTKaTlif these offspring had been founcP 
 wild and their parentage unknown, a, naturalist 
 would have at once pronounced them not merely 
 of distinct species but of distinct genera. 
 
 Hence the whole question as to the proba- 
 bility of Evolution of all organisms being true 
 may be made to turn upon that one point, viz. 
 Can the successive offspring differ ultimately so 
 much both morphologically and physiologically 
 as to constitute a new species or even genus, i.e. 
 what would be, at least, reckoned such accord- 
 ing to the most approved standard ? 
 
 Mr Darwin distinctly tells us that in Pigeons 
 such a result has actually been obtained so 
 far as morphology is concerned, but as yet all 
 of the same kind breed together ; so that the 
 physiological barrier of sterility has not yet 
 been set up. 
 
 Again, the long- cultivated cereals with no 
 known wild counterparts point to the same 
 conclusion ; as also do those genera of wild 
 plants which can boast of large numbers of 
 
 72 
 
IOO THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 subspecies or varieties, the existence of which 
 cannot be satisfactorily explained on any other 
 hypothesis than that of community of descent 
 with modification. Such genera may be named 
 as Cassia, Rosa, Rtibus, and Salix. 
 
 It is beside the main question, as has been 
 already pointed out, of the doctrine of Evolu- 
 tion to enquire whether the different forms 
 appear suddenly or by slight modifications. 
 The latter condition is required by the theory of 
 Natural Selection. But it is immaterial for the 
 doctrine of Evolution itself, provided such inter- 
 calary forms can be shewn to exist or with some 
 degree of probability to have existed. 
 
 That they do exist in many cases is a 
 fact admitted by everyone who has attempted 
 to classify a large series of specimens of allied 
 species or genera. Dr Hooker and Mr Bentham 1 
 have expressed this opinion ; so that classification, 
 once thought so easy with the facile scheme of 
 
 1 Speaking of the Asteroidece, a tribe of the Composites, Mr 
 Bentham says: "nearly the whole of the 90 genera, comprising 
 above 1400 species, pass into each other through intermediate 
 forms." Jl. of Lin. Soc., Vol. xui. p. 402. 
 
EVOLUTION" OF LIVING THINGS. IOI 
 
 Linnaeus, has now become a task which no mind 
 of ordinary ability can undertake with much 
 chance of success. Rare powers of discrimination, 
 with due appreciation of relative values and 
 great breadth of view, are essential qualities of 
 the systematist. The study of groups in all 
 their minute ramifications of affinity has ere 
 now forced the doctrine of Evolution upon the 
 attention and acceptance of the systematic 
 botanist. 
 
 Similarly is it the case with the Conchologist. 
 Mr Jeffreys alludes to the transitional characters 
 of shells so often found linking two or more 
 species if not genera together, while aberrant 
 forms of the same species, frequently caused by 
 difference of locality, are often so peculiar as 
 to be called by different specific names. 
 
 We must also bear in mind that in classifying 
 plants by their morphological or physiological 
 affinities, we are occasionally completely out of 
 our calculation, for the two phenomena though 
 generally correlated are sometimes quite distinct. 
 Thus the three supposed genera of Orchids, 
 
IO2 THE THEORY OF THE 
 
 Monocanthus viridis, Myanthes barbatus, and 
 Catasetum tridentatum, are one and the same 
 species, the first being male, the third female, 
 and the second possibly neutral, having appeared 
 on the same spike of flowers with the first and 
 third respectively. 
 
 On the other hand the three genera Rhodora, 
 Azalea and Rhododendron will interbreed, and 
 therefore physiologically are one genus, though 
 morphologically distinct. 
 
 Surely, then, any opponent of the doctrine of 
 development of species, who asserts that species 
 are absolutely distinct entities, may be called 
 upon, not only to define his idea of a species, 
 but to explain the above phenomena in accord- 
 ance with his suppositions, as well as to explain 
 the many capricious unions and ' refusals' 
 offered by morphologically distinct and closely 
 allied plants, respectively. 
 
 That the barrier of sterility has not been es- 
 tablished amongst cultivated plants and animals 
 does not appear in any way to nullify the 
 general argument. For fertility of crosses has 
 
EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 1 03 
 
 been clearly shewn to be due to constitutional 
 rather than morphological agreement. Plants 
 (such as species of Hippeastruvi) of the same 
 constitution interbreed freely, while aquatic and 
 land plants of the same genus refuse to do so. 
 
 But domesticated animals and plants are sub- 
 jected to very different conditions from those of 
 their wild state ; moreover the external condi- 
 tions of all cultivated or domesticated beings 
 are so very similar that those exclusive peculi- 
 arities of wild species never find place amongst 
 them. Moreover, with regard to domestic ani- 
 mals, there is a totally different mental as well 
 as bodily condition, from that of those in the 
 feral state, for they are not subject to laws im- 
 pelling them to procure their own food, and to 
 be wary in escaping from enemies, nor are they 
 subject to the fear of their enemies, while many 
 animals will not breed in confinement at all, and 
 so forth. Hence, as all these complicated condi- 
 tions of maintaining their existence in the wild 
 state are excluded from the domesticated, so 
 we cannot say but that the law of sterility 
 
104 THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 
 
 may become inoperative in the domesticated 
 state. 
 
 On the other hand, when we study the inter- 
 crossing of plants, such capricious results are 
 observed that nothing beyond the very general 
 expression of * sterility being for the most part 
 proportional to distance of affinity* can be 
 maintained. 
 
 Dean Herbert observed of hybrids that their 
 offspring vary from absolute sterility to a greater 
 degree of fertility than is possessed by the 
 parents themselves : sometimes widely (morpho- 
 logically) distinct species cross, as in the A maryl- 
 lidace<z> yet closely allied species refuse to do so. 
 
PART II. 
 
 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 MAN. 
 
 HAVING devoted the first part of this essay to 
 the establishment of the theory of Evolution of 
 living things, it would seem desirable to treat of 
 the latest and most remarkable being, namely 
 Man ; and, as he is the only moral being known, 
 a chapter on Man is an appropriate commence- 
 ment of the second part of this essay, in which 
 I propose to treat of the bearings of Evolution 
 upon Natural Religion and Christianity. 
 
 Before however offering any remarks upon 
 mankind, I would wish to state distinctly that 
 I do not at present see any evidence for be* 
 lieving in a gradual development of Man from 
 the lower animals by ordinary natural laws ; 
 that is, without some special interference, or,. 
 
108 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 if it be preferred, some exceptional conditions 
 which have thereby separated him from all other 
 creatures, and placed him decidedly in advance 
 of them all. 
 
 On the other hand, it would be absurd to 
 regard him as totally severed from them. 
 
 It is the great degree of difference I would 
 insist upon, bodily, mental, and spiritual, which 
 precludes the idea of his having been evolved 
 by exactly the same processes, and with the 
 same limitations as, for example, the horse from 
 the palseotherium. 
 
 Man offers three features of contrast with 
 other animals, his body, his mind, and his moral 
 faculties. 
 
 With regard to Man's bodily structure, Pro- 
 fessor Huxley has shewn conclusively (Man's 
 Place in Nattire] that in no organ whatever 
 is there a greater disparity between it and the 
 corresponding organ of some one or other ape, 
 than is the disparity between a higher and lower 
 grade of the Simiadce\ but Professor Huxley 
 adds that the absolute difference in its totality 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 between Man and Apes is very great indeed. 
 These are his words: "The structural differences 
 between Man and even the highest Apes... are 
 great and significant. Every bone of a Gorilla 
 bears marks by which it might be distinguished 
 from a corresponding bone of a Man; and in 
 the present creation at any rate no intermediate 
 link bridges over the gap between Homo and 
 Troglodytes" 
 
 The conclusion the Professor arrives at is, 
 that although there is a " no less sharp, though 
 somewhat narrower, line of distinction between 
 the Gorilla and the Orang, or the Orang and 
 the Gibbon... yet the structural differences be- 
 tween Man and the man-like Apes certainly 
 justify our regarding him as constituting a family 
 apart from them... but afford no justification for 
 placing him in a distinct order." 
 
 Now it appears to me that an import- 
 ant observation may be made here, namely, 
 that if an animal or plant exists as the sole 
 representative of a family or other large group, 
 the principles of Evolution induce us to re- 
 
HO EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 gard it as the last lingering remnant of a pre- 
 viously existing and extremely ancient type 1 . 
 Thus amongst animals we have geological evi- 
 dence of this truth shewn in the history of 
 the Cestracionida, now represented by the Port 
 Jackson Shark, in the few Chimara that have 
 survived, and in the -Nautilus, the sole repre- 
 sentative of the numerous Tetrabranchiata. Of 
 genera of which we have no history, there are 
 the Ornithorhynchns and Echidna, and, what is 
 more to the point, the Cheiromys of the order 
 Primates. 
 
 Now this species appears to be especially 
 significant, because it does not represent a high 
 form, but, just as one naturally expects, a more 
 generalized organism of a lower grade. But 
 Man too is a genus of the same order Primates, 
 
 1 It may be noted that this principle applies with equal force 
 to the Vegetal Kingdom. The fact that species of insular floras 
 are few in proportion to genera, and genera few in proportion 
 to orders, points to the gradual elimination of many, with the 
 retention of only a few forms which constitute the sole repre- 
 sentatives of a lost ancestry. Such plants as Fitchia, Pringlia, 
 Welwitschia and others illustrate this, while Equisetum> Lycopo- 
 dium and others are known to have been represented in early 
 geological ages by large and various forms. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. Ill 
 
 constituting a family by himself, yet so far from 
 being a generalized type, or of low grade, he is 
 of exactly the opposite character, viz. of the very 
 highest grade, most specialized, and of the 
 highest type 1 ! 
 
 Here then the genus Homo in its bodily 
 structure stands out as a direct violation of a 
 broad principle of Evolution. 
 
 There is another feature with regard to Man 
 considered solely as an animal, which seems 
 worthy of consideration, namely, that whenever 
 single genera represent a family, there is no great 
 tendency to much, if any, differentiation, or 
 migration ; the isolated genera of animals are 
 restricted to certain areas, and appear to have 
 lost the power of specific evolution. 
 
 With Man it is exactly the reverse. Not only 
 is he adapted to every climate it is questionable 
 whether such is the case with any other species 
 of animals but he has peopled every quarter 
 of the globe ; he is truly cosmopolitan, and 
 
 1 It is true man's affinities are dispersed through the Simiadtz, 
 but in his totality he is decidedly first. See a paper by Mr St 
 G. Mivart in Pop. Sci. Review, April, 1873. 
 
112 E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 in this feature more nearly resembles certain 
 plants. On the other hand, he has produced 
 many well-marked and decidedly differentiated 
 races. 
 
 With regard to further distinctions between 
 Man and animals, and especially to points which 
 cannot apparently be accounted for on any 
 hypothesis purposing to explain the action of 
 Evolution, I must refer the reader to remarks by 
 Mr Wallace in his interesting work On Natural 
 Selection, p. 303 seqq. y only mentioning here 
 those particular features which are most striking. 
 
 The first Mr W T allace alludes to is the size 
 of the brain of Man, saying that the brain of a 
 savage is larger than he needs it to be. 
 
 The second point Mr Wallace alludes to is 
 the 'Range of intellectual power in Man.' 
 This is enormous in a highly-trained mathema- 
 tician or man of science when compared with 
 that of a savage who can only count four ; yet 
 the capacity of the brains would be the same ; 
 thus clearly shewing that the brain of a savage 
 is much greater than he requires. 
 
E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 1 1 3 
 
 Mr Wallace next compares the intellects of 
 savages and animals, and shews that practi- 
 cally they scarcely exhibit any advance above 
 many intelligent animals : yet they possess a 
 brain which has a potential intellect capable of 
 being developed far beyond actual requirement. 
 
 He next passes on to the use of the hairy 
 covering of mammalia, and notices the constant 
 absence of hair from certain parts of Man's body 
 as a remarkable phenomenon, and one which 
 a savage keenly feels. Hence he draws the 
 conclusion that Natural Selection could not 
 have produced such a result, because Natural 
 Selection demands alterations to be useful and 
 not injurious. 
 
 Other points to which he alludes as throw- 
 ing great difficulty in the way of developing 
 Man from the Quadrumana by Natural Selection, 
 are the hands and feet. Of the hand he particu- 
 larly remarks : "It has all the appearance of an 
 organ prepared for the use of civilized Man, and 
 one which was required to render civilization 
 possible." 
 
 H. 8 
 
114 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 He then adds the following significant words : 
 "If it be proved that some intelligent power has 
 guided or determined the development of man, 
 then we may see indications of that power in 
 facts which, by themselves, would not serve to 
 prove its existence." 
 
 Other phenomena equally striking, and the 
 existence of which is quite as incomprehen- 
 sible if supposed due to Natural Selection, are 
 speech and the power of framing abstract ideas. 
 But what transcends all other distinctions is the 
 conception of a God. Here the line of demar- 
 cation becomes sharp and clear; while the Moral 
 Sense and Conscience involving the idea of 
 Duty make the separation complete. 
 
 My object in quoting the above passages from 
 Mr Wallace's able and interesting book, ^is to 
 shew that I am not single in believing Man to 
 have required some additional impulse beyond 
 what Natural Selection or any other process 
 of Evolution can furnish. That while he bears 
 about his body rudimentary organs apparently so 
 convincing of Evolution ; while his intellectual 
 
E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 1 1 5 
 
 powers can be paralleled in kind amongst 
 animals, though in morals he stands apart ; yet, 
 there is the enormous gap between him and 
 them which all observation and all philosophical 
 reasoning has failed to bridge over. 
 
 It is in consequence of this gap that I would 
 argue that Man cannot have been evolved solely 
 by Natural laws, at least such as we are ac- 
 quainted with in the Evolution of plants and 
 animals. 
 
 I purpose now adding some additional re- 
 marks on the intellect of Man to the few I have 
 brought forward from Mr Wallace's book. 
 
 If Man had been slowly evolved from the 
 Apes his intellect must have gradually developed 
 in proportion as his physical powers diminished, 
 as witnessed by the degradation of the canine 
 teeth and temporal muscles: and by the time the 
 genus Homo had become established we should 
 expect to find evidences of his semi-intellectual 
 work, crude no doubt, but none are forthcoming. 
 This, however, of course does not preclude the 
 possibility of their yet being discovered. What, 
 
 82 
 
1 1 6 E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 
 however, is more important than such negative 
 
 evidence is that we should expect to find in the 
 intellectual development of the children of civi- 
 lized Man traces of that semi-intellectual condi- 
 tion, whatever it was, that was possessed by the 
 supposed pre-human beings. 
 
 Surely the dawnings of intellect in a child 
 ought to give us glimpses of that intermediate 
 stage of Man between Troglodytes and Homo? 
 The closest scrutiny, however, gives us nothing at 
 all illustrative of any transitional stage between 
 the jabbering of an ape and the intelligent utter- 
 ances, however feebly expressed, of an infant 
 of two years old, or even of only eighteen months 
 existence. 
 
 Again, any comparison will shew children in 
 many respects to be remarkably like modern 
 savages. Now, savages of all tribes belong to 
 the same species of Man as the most intellectual 
 of European or other advanced nations ; nay 
 more, as far back as the palaeolithic ages, if we may 
 draw conclusions from similarity of workmanship, 
 the mental capacity of Man must have been 
 
E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 1 1 7 
 
 much the same as that of any savages of to- 
 day : they were then, as all modern races are, of 
 the same species of Homo. 
 
 In comparing savages to the children of civi- 
 lized communities, all that is meant by saying 
 that they are on the same intellectual plane, is 
 that the best sample of an untutored savage may 
 be fairly compared with a modern European 
 child. Thus the intellectual powers appear to 
 have been arrested at the stage characteristic of 
 a child, in that certain savages cannot count 
 beyond a few figures. There is the same 
 adoration of physical strength and animal 
 courage as in the modern schoolboy who, like 
 the savage, as a rule 1 , but little appreciates 
 the greater importance of moral force. Thus, 
 for example, there is the like instant exhibition 
 of pugnacity on real or fancied grounds of 
 offence, an accidental injury by a playmate 
 being immediately and angrily resented. Again, 
 
 1 But just as the sanctity of Truthfulness is held by some few 
 savages, so is it by some boys. 
 
1 1 8 E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 the love of finery in the male sex so prevalent 
 among savages is a feature which was character- 
 istic of an age antecedent to the present one, 
 of our own country: and of a time when the 
 intellectual development of the community was 
 at a very low ebb. 
 
 As a broad rule I think it a safe assertion to 
 maintain that the love of finery in the male sex 
 is in inverse proportion to the extent of develop- 
 ment of the intellectual powers. 
 
 A savage therefore is equivalent to what might 
 be called a child-man, an adult in physical 
 development, but with the higher powers arrested 
 at the stage of boyhood. 
 
 He may be compared to the Welwitschia 
 amongst plants, which is an embryo in phy- 
 siognomy but adult in physical characters, or as 
 a fish is comparable to an embryonic amphibian. 
 
 That there is the same potential intellectual 
 energy in the lowest savage as in a child of civi- 
 lized parents is proved by innumerable cases of 
 ordinary savages so placed in childhood as to 
 have all the advantages of civilized life. Any one 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 1 19 
 
 who listened to the intelligent conversation of the 
 twin-negress or 'two-headed Nightingale' will 
 corroborate this. 
 
 Mr Darwin, too, mentions how he was struck 
 with the general intelligence displayed by the 
 Fuegian who was taken on board the ' Beagle ' : 
 for the Fuegian may be regarded as one of the 
 very lowest grades of savages. 
 
 The same arrest of development in intellectual 
 power produces similar or analogous results, 
 allowance being made for differences of environ- 
 ing conditions ; in the ordinary navvy or unedu- 
 cated rustic, there is the same tendency to pug- 
 nacity, as also amongst pitmen and the Irish, the 
 same idea of physical prowess, the same boyish- 
 ness or even childishness of behaviour to one 
 another in little ways which an attentive observer 
 may often see, all witnessing to the same 
 phenomenon of retention or arrest of a low or 
 childlike intellectual grade in the adult. 
 
 The conclusions, then, I contend for are the 
 following: that there is the same amount of poten- 
 tial intellectual energy in the lowest savage and 
 
120 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 in the civilized parent's child, and which only 
 requires the occasion to develop it ; that there is 
 nothing in the development of the intellect of a 
 child of civilized parents to point back to a sup- 
 posed intermediate stage, had Man been slowly 
 developed ; for before a child can speak, its utter- 
 ances are unmeaning, which is not the case with 
 that of animals ; for every cry of an adult animal 
 is probably significant of some purpose. As soon 
 as a child can speak, say from eighteen months, 
 it is the dawning of the intelligence of Homo, 
 not of a semi-homo. There is no intermediate 
 stage between the infant's meaningless babblings 
 and the thoroughly conscious and intelligent 
 expression by which it denotes either parent. 
 
 I maintain that the powerful law of analogy 
 ought to help us at this point, if it be true that 
 the intellect of Man was slowly and 'naturally' 
 developed from that of Apes. 
 
 It, however, here breaks down entirely and 
 most significantly. 
 
 Again, in a comparison between Man and 
 animals, it must be clearly understood that a 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 121 
 
 very considerable amount of reasoning power 
 resides in the animal world, though apparently 
 somewhat capriciously distributed : yet the gap 
 between all such displays of intelligence as one 
 reads of in ants, birds, dogs, horses, &c., and 
 that of Man is so enormous, that I maintain 
 there are no facts in nature to corroborate, or 
 even furnish, the idea of Man's intellect having 
 been slowly developed. 
 
 'Nature makes no leaps/ is a sentence of 
 profound truth ; and if any. leap be discoverable, 
 it is to be seen from the intelligence of animals 
 to that of Man. 
 
 To say that the lowest savage shews but 
 little more intelligence than the highest Ape 
 does not destroy the argument, for the gap 
 is not so much to be measured by the actual 
 display of intelligence as by the Potential In- 
 tellectual energy possessed by Man as a being, 
 compared with any other species of the Primates. 
 
 The capacity of unlimited display of intellect is 
 in the species Homo : though it may be dormant 
 in many individuals. There is no such capacity 
 in any animal known. All instances of reason 
 
 
122 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 circulate on a comparatively low plane utterly 
 incomparable with those of Man. 
 
 Moreover, a question may be fairly raised 
 as to the truly intellectual character of many 
 of those so-called displays of intellect amongst 
 animals. Take, for example, the statement that 
 ants ascend the stalks of grasses, gnaw off the 
 grains while others below detach the seed from 
 the chaff and carry it home : then, after having 
 allowed it to germinate and so convert the 
 starch into sugar, i.e. after the grain is malted, 
 gnaw off the radicle to prevent further germ- 
 ination. Now these statements heard of for 
 the first time (but not witnessed) have excited 
 grave suspicions, not to say great contempt, as 
 indicating so much intelligence that an a priori 
 disbelief immediately arises : but when the same 
 phenomena are witnessed, as lately by Mr Mog- 
 gridge at Mentone 1 , we then begin to suspect 
 that it is a constant occurrence amongst certain 
 ants: and we shall soon regard it as part of 
 their regular habits, and it will then lapse into 
 instinct as much as bees collecting saccharine 
 
 1 Harvesting- Ants and Trap-door Spiders. Reeve and Co. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 fluid which they convert into honey and store 
 for a winter's use. No one regards that as 
 reasoning now ; nor, if the storing of seeds were 
 seen to be as common as honey, should we 
 regard it of a more intelligent character than 
 an acquired hereditary habit, i.e. Instinct. It 
 would, however, look like an act of intelligence 
 in the first ants that did it. 
 
 To return to Man, the general conclusion is 
 that whichever way we regard him, whether 
 with reference to the body, or his intellectual 
 or moral 1 capacities, the gap between Man and 
 Troglodytes is so great, that in the present 
 stage of our knowledge no known forces can 
 account for it ; and the result we are inevitably 
 driven to is, that Man is separated by so great 
 a distance from the rest of the Primates that, 
 as far as his body is concerned, he requires 
 to be placed in a distinct ' family/ as to his in- 
 tellect, certainly in a distinct 'order,' and morally 
 in a distinct 'kingdom,' which may deservedly 
 be called the ' Kingdom of Heaven/ 
 
 1 The cause of Man being the only moral creature will be 
 seen at pp. 150, 151. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM ANALOGY. 
 
 A LARGE class of evidential matter has not 
 been touched upon, or scarcely so, in this Essay. 
 It may be called The indirect evidence of Analogy. 
 
 When any principles are found to be of wider 
 
 
 
 application than bearing only upon some par- 
 ticular phenomenon under discussion, and to 
 embrace or apply to all other phenomena which 
 may be akin or analogous to it, then the value 
 of those principles, whatever they may be, will 
 be proportionally strengthened. 
 
 Mr H. Spencer (First Principles, p. 307 seqq] 
 has in his general theory of Evolution furnished 
 us with an admirable re'stime' of illustrations 
 of the principles of Evolution as applied e.g. 
 to painting and other arts, as well as to 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 12$ 
 
 civilization and language; the latter being so 
 well discussed by Sir C. Lyell in his Anti- 
 quity of Man it would be presumptuous in the 
 writer to do more than call attention to those 
 learned authors : and to express his conviction 
 of the extreme value of their analogies in sup- 
 porting Evolution when applied to the Organic 
 World. 
 
 The particular features, however, which may 
 be specially alluded to, are the principles, if we 
 may so call them, of Integration or consolidation 
 coupled with that of differentiation of organs 
 and functions. 
 
 In the organic world we have seen how in 
 the lowest group or that of simplest structure, 
 those functions which are performed by different 
 organs in the higher animals, are executed in 
 common by the general structure. In other 
 words, the more complex in structure is the 
 organism the more differentiated are the organs 
 by which the several functions are performed. 
 
 As an illustration of these principles taken 
 from the Animal Kingdom, we may consider 
 
126 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 that while a Mammal has a heart, lungs and 
 digestive organs, the sea anemone, which also 
 has a flow of nutritive fluid, breathes and devours, 
 yet effects these processes by one and the same 
 simple organ or sac. 
 
 Now, these principles when applied to com- 
 munities are well illustrated by ' Division of 
 Labour/ which is an elaborate differentiation 
 having its origin conjointly with integration of 
 the social elements. In the savage or undiffer- 
 entiated state of society each unit or individual 
 meets his wants out of his own unassisted 
 powers. On the other hand, in the highly 
 civilized community, while we see the units 
 aggregated together to make a complex whole, 
 or an entire nationality, yet each unit has now 
 its own proper duties to perform the several 
 duties of the units conjointly conspiring to 
 maintain the general welfare of the whole. 
 
 Again, let us consider Music. In its simplest 
 form there is only a monotonous tone or 
 a short cadence of a minimum of notes. But 
 with these simple elements of short cadences 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 combined, see what elaborate integrations, ' com- 
 positions ' as they are rightly called, we have 
 now obtained. But more than this while 
 music has differentiated, instruments have also ; 
 and though each instrument can be played alone, 
 yet witness the supreme integration in an or- 
 chestral band : each instrument having its own 
 part to play, yet contributing to the harmonious 
 unity of the whole. 
 
 Amongst these analogies that which strikes 
 one as having an importance far surpassing all 
 the others put together in its ultimate conse- 
 quence is the inestimable value which this prin- 
 ciple offers to support Christianity. 
 
 The present writer has elsewhere 1 maintained 
 the naturalness of Christianity to be one of its 
 most important evidences, and on the present 
 occasion he thinks it not out of place but rather 
 the reverse to point out the application of this 
 principle. 
 
 1 Unpublished Sermons : as well as in a paper read before the 
 Victoria Institute, on Certain Analogies between the methods of 
 Deity in Nature and Revelation. ( Trans, of Victoria Ins. Vol. I v.) 
 
128 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 In St Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, the 
 great Apostle is reasoning upon the existence 
 of a diversity of gifts, but that it was One and 
 the same Spirit who divided severally as He 
 willed. 
 
 He does so in consequence of a great amount 
 of uncharitableness and bitterness which had 
 arisen amongst the members of that Church, 
 because certain of them had been endowed with 
 gifts which others had not : and the great duty 
 which St Paul tried to impress upon them, in the 
 1 3th chapter of his first epistle, is that of mutual 
 love or Charity. For it was not a principle of 
 God's Church, any more than in nature, to allow 
 units to be all alike, and so independent and 
 without cohesion : but that the different elements 
 should be differently endowed, one element 
 thereby supplementing by one kind of gift the 
 wants of another, and vice versa; and that all the 
 diverse elements should harmoniously unite as 
 one compact body: so that with * differentiation' 
 combined with * integration ' was the Church to 
 be constructed. St Paul illustrates this principle 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 12C) 
 
 by referring to the structure of the human body, 
 which of course is a natural circumstance sub- 
 stantiating this great law. 
 
 Here, then, we recognize a great and funda- 
 mental principle, linking together in one scheme 
 all creation both material and spiritual, and 
 equally applicable to the individual units in the 
 development of their structure and functions as 
 to the collective units constituting a body mate- 
 rial, a body politic, or a body ecclesiastic. 
 
 If ever the grand and final result of inte- 
 gration take place, it will be when all nation- 
 alities shall have learnt the great duty of life ; 
 that while existing as separate peoples, there 
 must be international unity and harmony with 
 mutual co-operation ; just as physical con- 
 ditions will, ever give rise to differentiation 
 in Beings, together with its concomitant phe- 
 nomenon, integration ; this, however, will pro- 
 bably never be fulfilled before the end of all 
 things shall have come, and terrestrial imperfect 
 humanity ceased to exist. 
 
 We may add to these principles of differentia- 
 H. 9 
 
130 E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 tion and integration that of Retention of Type or 
 Persistence of Character, as well as the laws of 
 Embryology, as being equally applicable to all 
 other things capable of growth and development 
 as to organic beings. 
 
 As an illustration of the principle of Embryo- 
 logy alluded to, Mr Darwin has described to us 
 its application to Man, so that we need not re- 
 produce that instance here (Descent of Man, 
 Vol. I. p. 14 seqq.). As another, however, may 
 be given the following. 
 
 " In a very early stage of its development, the 
 heart of the chick appears as an elongated sac 
 or contractile tube, connected behind with veins, 
 and in front with an artery. Thus in its general 
 condition it resembles the simplest form of heart 
 met with amongst the invertebrata. Soon the 
 tube becomes bent upon itself and divided by 
 two constricti9ns into three compartments, freely 
 communicating. The one in which the veins 
 terminate becomes auricle, the next ventricle, 
 and the third an arterial bulb. Now, in its 
 general condition, it resembles the heart of a fish. 
 
E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 1 3 I 
 
 Then, the single auricle, ventricle and arterial 
 bulb each becomes divided into two, so as to 
 form the left and right heart, as it occurs in 
 birds and mammalia 1 ." 
 
 The principle herein involved may be ex- 
 pressed by saying that at any given stage in 
 the development of the higher being, it has 
 attained, a grade of development equal to the 
 more or most advanced condition of the lower : 
 but, save in the equality of the grade, the 
 characters are more or less distinct. 
 
 Thus, as in the structure of the higher animals 
 and in Man the ankylosed condition of the bony 
 parts is a subsequent one to an unankylosed state, 
 so in fishes we see the arrested stage of the 
 unankylosed condition : though as far as the 
 existence of fishes is concerned, that stage or 
 grade is the best suited to their mode of life and 
 is their final stage of differentiation. 
 
 Now this great principle is also universal in 
 its application ; and applies to the development 
 of mental phenomena just as much as to organic 
 
 1 Life and Death^ p. 29, by W. S. Savory, F.R.S. 
 
 92 
 
132 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 structures. This has been already alluded to 
 (p. 1 1 8), and therefore I shall say no more than 
 merely recall the fact to the reader's mind, viz. 
 that, if we compare the manners and habits of 
 savages, they will be seen to be on the same 
 mental horizon with children of civilized parents. 
 Physical prowess with both is the great subject 
 for adoration, as far as the male sex is con- 
 cerned. Though the love of self-adornment is 
 more differentiated among civilized beings and 
 is, or ought to be, confined to the female sex ; 
 we find it undifferentiated in the savage, for he 
 still decks himself out with beads, feathers and 
 earrings 1 . 
 
 Now let us apply this principle to Religion- 
 As long as the Jew, who had been 'selected' to 
 be the keeper of the elements of true religion 
 subsequently to be developed into Christianity, 
 was in a semi-barbaric state, all that could be 
 taught him profitably was mere humanity, to 
 
 1 It may perhaps be hinted that these same two features o 
 external adornment and prowess find another illustration in our 
 military, whose profession of arms necessarily cultivates the 
 latter feature, while the former is at least associated with it on 
 natural principles. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 133 
 
 some slightly greater extent than was recognized 
 by contemporary nations, amongst whom it was 
 mainly ignored or only took the form of spasm- 
 odic instances of natural kindliness; a smould- 
 ering spark amongst the decaying remnants of 
 natural morality, which was not to be quenched, 
 but subsequently fanned into an ever-burning 
 flame of Charity or universal love. Coupled 
 with those lessons of humanity were numerous 
 laws civil and moral to be kept, commandments, 
 the chief spirit of which was ''Thou shalt not " 
 with the promise of tangible rewards for obedi- 
 ence, such as an increase of corn, wine and oil ; 
 with temporal and even corporeal punishment 
 for disobedience, the sword, fire and the plague. 
 Now what is the general bearing or interpre- 
 tation of all this ? That "the Law was a school- 
 master to bring [man] to Christ," that is, the 
 Jew of the Old Testament represents Man in 
 his boy/wod, and the whole principle of discipline 
 throughout is applicable to that stage of pro- 
 gress ; but as soon as he becomes a man, and is 
 "no longer under tutelage "..."he putteth away 
 
134 -EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 childish things." He is now, i. e. under Christ, 
 "an heir, joint-heir with Him of the inheritance 
 prepared for him of his Father." 
 
 An important remark must be added here ; for 
 this analogy of Evolution as applied to religion 
 fails at one point. 
 
 In~the development of art, science, or society, 
 &c. we have a natural process working out the 
 gradual integration with differentiation similar 
 to division of labour; but with Christianity it 
 is not entirely a natural process of development, 
 but a regeneration. 
 
 The element of moral evil or sin has become 
 a deterring agent in the process. And just 
 as in the case of disease which must be cured 
 in the body, Nature works at her reparative 
 processes but cannot always effect a cure without 
 external aid : so in the case of Religion, though 
 the development to a large extent is natural, 
 or at least in accordance with natural principles, 
 yet humanity could not be restored, nor Chris-* 
 tianity developed, by natural processes alone. 
 
 God interfered, therefore, like a physician, to 
 
E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. I 3 5 
 
 help Nature, to furnish an impulse to her powers 
 of restoration, which had become enfeebled if not 
 ruined! And, too, just as a cure cannot be 
 effected all at once but is usually a slow process, 
 so in the regeneration of mankind there have 
 been many divine interferences in 'selecting* 
 one man, Abraham ; then in the protection, 
 guidance and training of the 'peculiar people/ 
 Israel ; while the greatest and most important 
 interference was when Christ the Son of God, 
 the Physician of the soul, came and promul- 
 gated the fundamental conditions of universal 
 love to all mankind, as all men are brothers by 
 nature : while at the same time the basis of self- 
 regeneration must be laid in an enthusiasm 
 roused by a love to Him. 
 
 - In other words, by no natural process of Evo- 
 lution could Christianity be differentiated out 
 of Heathen philosophy or out of the highest 
 phase of Judaism Pharisaism at the period of 
 Christ's coming: and no other phase of religious 
 or moral thought existed at the time 1 . 
 
 1 I would refer the reader to a most valuable work on this 
 subject, The Jesus of the Evangelists, by the Rev. C. A. Row. 
 
136 EVOLUTION' AND RELIGION. 
 
 But, here, once more mark an analogy to Na- 
 ture even in this divine interference of Christ. 
 
 Just as man agrees with animals in all funda- 
 mental points of structure, even to the posses- 
 sion of rudimentary organs, as well as mental 
 qualities, though moral and spiritual features 
 prove him to be distinct, yet in the aggregate 
 his powers are far in advance of theirs; in 
 fact, in every way, as we have seen, is the gap 
 so enormous, that no principles that we are ac- 
 quainted with will justify us in saying that he 
 could be evolved from the Simiadce without some 
 divine impulse being given to him. 
 
 So when we compare the old ethnic ideas of 
 what was noble, with the teaching of Christ ; 
 who exalts the moral and humbler virtues over 
 the purely physical and heroic ones; and who has 
 thrown a sacred halo over the most degraded 
 and abandoned of mankind, whom the philo- 
 sopher admitted he was powerless to regenerate 
 by any system of morality or philosophy he 
 could propound, and whom the proud Pharisee 
 could only pronounce as 'cursed* when we think 
 of all this, what Christianity ts, and what it 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 137 
 
 has done, the analogy is forced upon us that 
 the gap between it and ancient philosophy is 
 so enormous, as to preclude the idea of its ever 
 having been developed out of any phase of 
 moral thought which existed at the time, when 
 we know from testamentary evidence that Christ 
 came and propounded His doctrines of universal 
 love and everlasting life through Himself. 
 
 Another analogy is yet worthy of note. 
 
 No one can fail to be struck with the remark- 
 able parallel between the history of animal and 
 vegetal life and that of nations. If we compare 
 those of Eastern countries or semi-barbaric ones 
 with those of Greece, Rome, or England, we see 
 the same lengthened continuity of an uneventful 
 stream for ages, whereas in a highly and rapidly 
 developing nation i.e. that undergoing differen- 
 tiation thousands of events, political, social 
 ecclesiastical, or what not, mark the line of 
 progress in as many years as there were of un- 
 eventful centuries in a state of low civilization 1 . 
 Every feature remains long undifferentiated or 
 
 1 The above idea is borrowed from Prof. Haughton's Mani4al 
 of Geology. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 stereotyped ; art becomes stagnant and runs 
 along permanent grooves without any, or with 
 but slight, modifications. Beliefs and superstitions 
 become fossilized, so that the feature of Reten- 
 tion of Type (and the lower the grade the more 
 persistent is it) holds good for all other classes 
 of phenomena as well as for the Evolution of life. 
 What may be considered still more striking 
 is that similar states of barbarism have analogous 
 if not absolutely identical characteristics. No- 
 thing could be more illustrative of this than the 
 universally similar types of flint and other wea- 
 pons of savages ; thus the chipped flints of 
 Europe are paralleled by the chipped obsidian 
 of Mexico. The smooth and polished celts of 
 the old Continent find their counterparts in the 
 polished jade of the New Zealander of to-day, 
 illustrating well the relative persistency of what- 
 ever is of a low grade 1 . 
 
 1 A few illustrations of a retention of type are the following, 
 viz. the uniformity of the plays of Terence compared with the 
 great variety of the modern drama : the characters of existing 
 Chinese and Japanese art : the inlaid pattern of Indian ivory 
 ornaments and boxes being always the same : lastly, the clown of 
 a pantomime, the letters of rustics and the present type of four- 
 wheeled cabs. 
 
E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 1 3 9 
 
 One more feature will be noticed and then 
 this chapter on analogies must close. 
 
 It may be quite true, as Mr H. Spencer says, 
 that there is a passage in every ' Life ' " from 
 the imperceptible into the perceptible and again 
 from the perceptible into the imperceptible;" but 
 he does not bring out what appears to be another 
 important principle, viz., that during the passage 
 into the imperceptible, "A remnant shall be 
 left which shall take root downwards and bear 
 fruit upwards" (Is. xxxvii. 31), not necessarily 
 to resume the diagnostic features of the Being 
 when perceptible, but to be differentiated or at 
 least so modified afresh as to appear as a new 
 specific entity. Though the principle is quoted 
 from the history of the Israelites, yet it seems 
 equally true of all beings*. 
 
 1 Since writing the above, the following observations by Mr 
 G. Bentham have appeared in the Journal of the Linn. Soc. t 
 Vol. XIII. p. 481, which bear a remarkable corroboration of this 
 idea. Speaking of the dispersion of races of the Composite, and 
 of the origin, the rise to full vigour and final decay of any group, 
 he says: "Old, decaying and apparently expiring races may in 
 some of their branches... start into new life." "Young progressive 
 races... may be rising before our eyes from some branch of an old 
 race which has passed its prime." Again, with regard to certain 
 
140 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 Of organic beings, as we have seen, each type 
 presumably commenced with an insignificant 
 origin, rose to perceptibility and characteristic 
 significance, then disappeared, leaving a remnant 
 which pointed to its former existence, while new 
 types were differentiated out of those remaining. 
 
 Thus has it been with Christianity; the germ 
 is seen in Abraham, the family in Jacob, the 
 tribes with the Judges, the nation with Solomon. 
 The first step towards dissolution appears in 
 the contest between his son Rehoboam and 
 Jeroboam. The ultimate collapse is witnessed 
 in the dispersion ; but a remnant did return, 
 struck root, and out of the seed of Jesse rose the 
 Righteous Branch which flourished, and bears 
 fruit amongst us now. 
 
 Just so, too, do other nations, political com- 
 munities, sects and other bodies, rise, flourish 
 and decay, but then the remnants give rise to 
 new combinations, and reappear in fresh forms 
 ever gathering strength to become new specific or 
 
 "races still vigorous but breaking up into subordinate races, 
 many... give indications of future diminution and extinction, but 
 some of which as yet of a very low grade exhibit a great suscepti- 
 bility of extension and progress." 
 
EVOLUTION' AND RELIGION. HI 
 
 generic types of being, till at last they too have 
 run their course and disappear, and so the cycle 
 is completed : and thus will it be with all things 
 until the end of time. 
 
 Thus, then, do we see how all those groups of 
 phenomena which, when brought to bear upon 
 the history of animal and vegetal life, force upon 
 us the acceptation of Evolution, as best ac- 
 counting for their origin, rise and disappear- 
 ance apply to every class of terrestrial ' being,' 
 organic, mental or spiritual, which is charac- 
 terized by possessing powers of growth, develop- 
 ment, or differentiation. 
 
 The immense value of this discovery lies in 
 the disclosure of grand uniform principles, as 
 governing the development and differentiation 
 of the Universe, thereby testifying to the 
 unity of design throughout and the One Final 
 Cause of all. 
 
 A fact of great significance with regard to 
 the harmony between Christianity and natural' 
 law is that Christ so frequently illustrated the 
 development of His kingdom by similes taken 
 from natural phenomena. His parables are often 
 
142 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 founded upon nature ; thus the law of slow de- 
 velopment of religion, whether in the individual 
 or the nation, is likened to 'the mustard' or 
 'good seed;' while the ' struggle for existence' 
 of the Word in the heart, against bigotry, 
 ignorance, or the superstitions of a dominant 
 power, is illustrated by the seed growing by the 
 way side or amongst thorns. 
 
 The reader may here be reminded that the 
 effects of Christ's 'fan,' at the commencement of 
 His ministry, were as true an instance of Natural 
 Selection as any in Nature ; for it was only 
 those hearts which would receive His teaching, 
 that were thus self-selected as His disciples, the 
 'fittest survived/ the proud and self-conceited 
 falling away into prejudice and unbelief. 
 
 It must be noticed too, how in Religion the 
 same principles hold good for the individual 
 as for the nation. Just as the history of a 
 man's life is an epitome of that of a community, 
 or as a human embryo epitomizes the rest of the 
 mammalia; so does the growth in grace of a 
 man symbolize the spiritual advancement of a 
 nation. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 MORAL EVIL OR SELFISHNESS. 
 
 IN the last chapter I reminded the reader, 
 that Christianity is not so much a development 
 as a regeneration of mankind ; and it will not 
 be out of place to give some account of the 
 cause of the moral degradation of man, which 
 has required such a regeneration. 
 
 Much has been written concerning moral evil, 
 'the Fall' and Sin: and though it may seem 
 somewhat superfluous to enter upon a disquisi- 
 tion of these subjects here, yet as they have 
 their collateral bearings upon Development, es- 
 pecially in its .theological aspects, or Christi- 
 anity, it is desirable to make some few remarks 
 upon them. 
 
144 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 I would state therefore that my belief is, that 
 the origin of Moral Evil was the conscious abuse 
 of means instead of using them solely for the ends 
 for which they were designed 1 . 
 
 In order to see the full force of this assertion, 
 we must compare the condition of animals in 
 their feral state with that of Man. 
 
 Now, I think it is a fair statement, to say that 
 such animals as a rule do no more than follow 
 their natural instincts. 
 
 In obeying those laws of self-preservation and 
 propagation, which have been impressed upon 
 them, it is extremely probable that wild animals 
 eat and drink, not for the sake of eating and 
 drinking, but to maintain bodily life only. The 
 laws of propagation are periodically in force, 
 and are obeyed at those times ; but union is 
 
 I 1 have just met with the following remarks in Dr Goul- 
 burn's Thoughts on Personal Religion, p. 300, and gladly subjoin 
 them in a note, for they seem to correspond exactly with this 
 view: "So apt are we (at least in spiritual subjects) to confound 
 means with ends and to erect the means into an end an in- 
 tellectual perplexity, indeed, but one which sometimes appears 
 to me to bear a trace of the Fall, and to be due ultimately to the 
 corruption of our nature." 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 145 
 
 probably not resorted to, for mere union's sake. 
 In fact animals, as far as we can judge, shew 
 no signs whatever of distinguishing the object 
 from the means ; and they are consequently not 
 conscious of the possibility of abusing the means 
 instead of using them. 
 
 Now with man there is an element of con- 
 sciousness which, even if it could be detected 
 in animals, certainly so far transcends the extent 
 to which it may be developed in them, as to 
 bring about vastly different results. I mean that 
 he alone can see that eating is pleasant, and so 
 often eats for the sake of eating : and similarly 
 for other pleasures. This appears to me to be 
 the right interpretation of such an expression in 
 Genesis as the "knowledge of good and evil," 
 that is to say a consciousness of the right use 
 of natural law and the 'evil' which lies 
 in the abuse of such good gifts as the means 
 by which the natural law is executed. That 
 moral evil or sin takes its rise in this abuse 
 of means, or lust, which is the same thing, is 
 supported by various expressions in the New 
 H. 10 
 
146 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 Testament: thus St James says, "Every man 
 is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own 
 lust and enticed." 
 
 If now I am right in assuming the first 
 members of the human race to have been 
 under low moral and intellectual conditions, 
 the first element of 'sin' would be this kind 
 of departure from rectitude. For while, as we 
 now know, consciousness of probity, when de- 
 veloped into the form of that of the highest 
 civilized Christian, places him at an immeasurable 
 distance above animals, barbarians and savages ; 
 yet that very consciousness, where the intellec- 
 tual and moral senses are weak, renders man 
 an easy prey to those enticements which lead 
 him to abuse Nature's gifts instead of using 
 them. Lust is the first element of trial to which 
 a man can be subjected. 
 
 As human beings multiplied and formed 
 social masses, and as civilization advanced, evil 
 would become 'differentiated ;' it would take, 
 and has taken, diverse forms. Thus when 
 coinage was introduced and money was looked 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 147 
 
 upon as the representative of goods, and as 
 a means for an end, then the love of money per 
 se, as exhibited for example in the miser, repre- 
 sented an abuse of the means to the sacrifice of 
 the end. But not only is it the miser but the 
 selfish squanderer who sins. The use of money 
 is purely relative, and after a just proportion is 
 spent upon oneself, the surplus is not to be 
 squandered but bestowed where it is most 
 needed. 
 
 "Let him that stole steal no more, but rather 
 let him labour with his hands, that he may have 
 *to give to him that needeth." 
 
 So too Christ says, "Make to yourselves friends 
 of the Mammon of unrighteousness, that when 
 ye fail they may receive you into everlasting 
 habitations." 
 
 So that whether a man hoards or whether he 
 squanders, the sin is the same, for it involves a 
 gross abuse of wealth, which is only a means 
 to an end and not the 'end' itself. 
 
 Another instance is lying: this is the abuse 
 of speech for selfish and wrong ends, and is a 
 
 IO 2 
 
I4 8 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 secondary result from 'knowing good and evil.' 
 See James i. 26 and iii. 
 
 Now it will be observed how all classes of 
 sin centre in selfishness. With regard to sins 
 of the flesh this is obviously so: with lying 
 it is an attempt either to obtain the selfish end 
 of securing oneself from injury, or to gain some 
 supposed wish or gratification, as in exaggeration, 
 romancing or. scandal. With stealing, it is the 
 endeavour to obtain for oneself the belongings 
 of another. With passion, malice, and murder, 
 it is the gratification of selfish feelings of 
 revenge. 
 
 Now in these, and the reader may perhaps 
 suggest others to himself, a process of develop- 
 ment or differentiation of evil or sin may be 
 observed to have taken place. 
 
 Thus in the case of anger. 
 
 There is a righteous indignation or anger, 
 as it is called in Scripture, when it is said 
 that "Jesus looked round about him in anger," 
 or again, " He was angered at the hardness 
 of their hearts." In this there is no sin ; it 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 149 
 
 is a natural instinct like conscience; for indig- 
 nation detects or upbraids the sin of others, while 
 the conscience upbraids sin in ourselves. 
 
 But when this kind of anger is cherished 
 for anger's sake ; when we have " let the sun 
 go down upon our wrath/' it assumes the forms 
 of rage, hatred, malice and revenge. These are 
 its differentiations, and are relatively worse and 
 worse, till the lust or selfishness of our rage 
 culminates in the crime of murder. 
 
 Or again stealing, and we may add begging. 
 Disregarding very exceptional cases of starva- 
 tion when natural cravings overmaster the moral 
 sense, stealing and begging may be regarded 
 as forms of selfishness, at least when resulting 
 from idleness. 
 
 Idleness is characteristic of young days. 
 When the infant, having had everything done 
 for it, becomes a boy, the being put to a task 
 to be undertaken on his own account appears 
 irksome to him, and idleness is a not unnatural 
 feeling; then, if this be not thrown off, but remain 
 as part of the constitution of the man, the 
 
E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 vicious results are but too obvious. It is an 
 arrested stage of man's development. Idleness 
 in a man is equivalent to his remaining like 
 a boy in habits. Whichever way, then, we look 
 at sin, it lapses into selfishness. "The lust of 
 the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride 
 of life" are but various forms of self-gratifi- 
 cation. 
 
 Hence the word selfishness is synonymous 
 with sin ; and it becomes us to consider how 
 this selfishness has arisen. 
 
 When we examine the habits of animals, self- 
 interest is undoubtedly a ruling power. 
 
 By self-interest in animals I do not mean 
 the same thing as the conscious self-interest of 
 a man ; but that animals solely follow the 
 guiding of the laws which induce them to 
 acquire food for themselves and to preserve 
 themselves from injury. That is to say, all 
 their actions are instinctively directed to their 
 own good. This self-interest of animals is 
 purely instinctive, and involves no conscious- 
 ness whatever. This same remark applies to 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 15 I 
 
 the apparent selfishness and unselfishness of 
 animals. 
 
 Indeed the word selfishness is purely relative, 
 and can only be applied where the means have 
 been consciously abused. 
 
 Acts apparently unselfish, not to say of a chari- 
 table appearance, have been witnessed in ani- 
 mals; as when a blind member of a community 
 has been fed and cared for by its kin ; or again 
 when an animal has risked its life for another, 
 or for its keeper. Still, in these and all such 
 like cases, there could be no consciousness of 
 the self-sacrifice, certainly not of any duty to a 
 Higher Power. 
 
 Here then we may note the grand distinc- 
 tion between man and animals lies in this 
 consciousness of the nature of such acts as these 
 and the sense of duty involved in them. With 
 animals, acts of unselfishness are without con- 
 sciousness of duty. Hence we see why man 
 alone can be moral. With man unselfishness 
 has to become a leading principle of action or 
 duty. 
 
152 E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 Self-interest with man beyond a certain radius 
 round necessity becomes selfishness, and is 
 culpable according to its degree, as means will 
 then become abused. 
 
 The great law of unselfishness or self-sacri- 
 fice is the basis of natural religion of man 
 as it is of Christianity, but could only have been 
 implanted in his nature by God. 
 
 To be unselfish was, I have no doubt, the 
 original and normal condition of man, when he 
 first became a "living soul;" but the abuse of 
 means has brought about the selfish state; and 
 as generation after generation has passed and 
 gone, selfish habits have been copied and 
 inherited until selfishness replaced liberality, 
 exclusiveness overthrew generosity, and hostility 
 was one and the same with alienation. Sin 
 became the recognised and supposed right 
 condition and so was unknown as sin ; nay 
 more, it became part of religion itself; "the 
 prophets prophesied falsely, and the people 
 loved to have it sa" In fact "conscience had 
 taken the wrong side." 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 153 
 
 We may observe, too, how selfishness is a 
 disintegrating process, and is the very reverse 
 of Evolution in its effects. 
 
 The Evolution of societies, as we have seen, 
 is the gradual differentiation of their elements, 
 which, however, remain linked together by 
 mutual co-operation, as for example in the 
 principle of the division of labour. Amongst 
 savages on the contrary there is no cohesion. 
 Each has to supply all his own wants, and is 
 at enmity with all around. 
 
 So too the selfishness and exclusiveness of 
 clans, together with their hereditary hatred to- 
 wards each other, are the means of destroying 
 the power of Evolution and disintegrating its 
 effects. On the other hand the slow fusion of 
 clan with clan in the bonds of friendship, the 
 slower binding of nations by international unions, 
 are results of the Evolution of society, or of the 
 gradual leavening process of Christianity, for 
 in this they are one and the same. 
 
 Another aspect of selfishness : 
 
 Every man stands in the midst of his fellow- 
 
154 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 men, and his mission consists in doing as much 
 good to them as possible within his little sphere 
 of action. He himself is a means to an end, 
 "in honour preferring another" rather than 
 himself. If he neglects that duty, wraps him- 
 self up in a cloak of selfishness, and shuts up 
 his bowels of compassion, he is abusing that 
 'means' and sacrificing the chief object of his 
 existence for his own gratification. 
 
 The social nexus of Christianity and of Evo- 
 lution is one and the same, namely unselfishness 
 or self-sacrifice. 
 
 To repeat in summary the general effects of 
 selfishness is to say that its tendency is to 
 make men isolated or disintegrated beings, and 
 is therefore the very reverse of the laws of Evo- 
 lution, which are well expressed by Mr Spencer 
 in the words " differentiation with integration," 
 whereas disintegration crumbles all to pieces, 
 and makes men isolated and repulsive units. 
 
 It is easy to see, then, that just so far as 
 selfishness holds ground in individuals or in a 
 party, clique, religious sect or what not, to that 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 155 
 
 same degree is there disintegration in the general 
 body to which they belong ; and that the 
 philosophy of Christianity and the philosophy 
 of nature, i.e. Evolution, encourages and develops, 
 if it cannot at once enforce, the exactly opposite 
 conditions. 
 
 That the stability of the original naturalness 
 the golden age of the ancients has been over- 
 thrown, and that the moral equilibrium of man 
 has received a shock of continually increasing 
 impetus through the ages of the world, the 
 pages of universal history too plainly disclose. 
 
 Nothing more clearly proves this than the 
 condition of the world from its earlier times down 
 to the present, and especially when under the 
 influence of Christianity. War was the normal 
 or usual condition; "not," as the author of 
 Ecce Homo says, "because there had been any 
 quarrel, but because there had been no treaty." 
 The very word hostis was equivalent to ' fo- 
 reigner' and 'enemy' alike. But the condition 
 which appeals to every civilized man's heart 
 as most conducive to happiness and comfort 
 
156 EVOLUTION' AND RELIGION. 
 
 is universal peace not universal war. Every 
 day, as civilization advances under the laws of 
 Evolution, war becomes more disastrous to the 
 community, which in proportion as it realizes 
 the temporal advantages of peace, so does it 
 dread the necessity of war : and what there- 
 fore one can easily see to be the summum 
 bonum of national prosperity, namely, inter- 
 national unity, is the grand aim of civilization, 
 Christianity, Evolution, and humanity. 
 
 This is the grandest aim of the Gospel, and 
 was uttered in the words of the prophet Isaiah 
 when he proclaimed the time that men should 
 "beat their swords into ploughshares and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks :" and that "nation 
 shall not lift up sword against nation, neither 
 shall they learn war any more." Is. ii. 4. 
 
 Christianity, then, is the religious form of 
 Evolution ; though in consequence of the ac- 
 cumulated degradation of man, the impetus 
 of evil had acquired too great power to be re- 
 versed by any natural forces in existence. Bad- 
 ness was thought to be goodness. The natural 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 1 57 
 
 instincts of purity, of kindliness, of mercy, charity, 
 self-sacrifice and others of which the Gospel 
 of Christ speaks, had become long since crushed 
 down, ignored and forgotten, so that no purely 
 human effort could drag forth and elevate them 
 so as to become ruling powers over the dominant 
 forces. 
 
 But, however, having been at last by superhu- 
 man, nay, Divine means, brought to light, and the 
 degrading effects of sin, now recognised as sin, 
 put forth, the laws of Christian Evolution have 
 once more gained a footing. The seed of the 
 Tree of Life has been sown afresh, its fruit is 
 rapidly spreading, and let us hope that, like a 
 vigorous alien amongst plants, it will rapidly 
 drive out the aboriginal weeds of idolatrous and 
 debasing superstitions. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON THE WISDOM AND BENEFICENCE OF THE 
 CREATOR. 
 
 HAVING seen that man has appeared as the 
 last of the Creator's works ; and that, although 
 linked with other vertebrates, yet can he boast 
 of far higher powers intellectual and moral 
 than any other creatures ; it is time to consider 
 the terrestrial history of life with reference to 
 the Creator Himself, and endeavour as far as 
 possible to discover the wisdom and beneficence 
 of God as displayed in the Evolution of Living 
 Things. 
 
 In endeavouring to trace evidences of the 
 wisdom and beneficence of God in the Evolu- 
 tion of Living Things, certain difficulties will 
 soon become apparent : and it is necessary at 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 159 
 
 the outset to understand clearly what we signify 
 by these attributes of the Deity. 
 
 We cannot judge of actual wisdom beyond 
 our own experience and consciousness, and when 
 we apply the word to man, we signify "a right 
 use of knowledge;" when, however, we try to 
 estimate the wisdom of God, we fail from our 
 feeble powers to grasp so transcendent an attri- 
 bute as it becomes when vested in Deity. 
 
 It is easy enough to detect thousands of what 
 we may designate instances of wisdom in the 
 details of creation, as, for example, in supplying 
 every kind of creature with a proper means 
 of obtaining its food and enjoying its existence. 
 Wisdom is obvious in furnishing every animal 
 with organs suited to its sphere of existence 
 and so forth: or, again, in the phenomena of 
 anatomy, the combinations of strength and 
 lightness, rapidity of muscular action with no 
 loss of force, or what is called 'the principle of 
 least action 1 / 
 
 1 See Lectures on this subject by Rev. Prof. Haughton, F.R.S., 
 delivered at the Royal Institution. 
 
160 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 Now it must be observed here, that works on 
 Natural Theology do not appear to go beyond 
 this; and that the writers, such as Paley, aim 
 no higher than to shew that such wonderfully 
 constructed organs as exist in the human body 
 must have had an intelligent Designer arguing 
 of course from man's powers of designing and 
 constructing. 
 
 Or if one step further is attempted, viz. to 
 shew forth the Divine wisdom and goodness, 
 some writers, as of the Bridgewater Treatises, do 
 not, as a rule, seem to see that all instances of 
 goodness and wisdom are relative only; and 
 therefore not unfrequently they are guilty of 
 penning the most flagrant instances of false or 
 questionable reasoning 1 . Merely, therefore, to 
 bring forward instances in any degree of abun- 
 dance (as could easily be done) of wisdom 
 and beneficence, 'which might at least be con- 
 sidered such by one being in respect of itself only, 
 
 1 See the writer's paper on Natural Theology, considered with 
 reference to Modern Philosophy. Trans, of the Victoria Institute, 
 Vol. vn. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. l6l 
 
 is a waste of time. Such may be considered an 
 axiom of the methods of Creation. 
 
 But when those same instances of goodness 
 and beneficence are regarded, from the point of 
 sight of another being, the latter may not con- 
 sider them beneficial at all. Thus, an Ichneu- 
 mon fly, had it reasoning powers, might easily 
 conclude that caterpillars were beneficently-de- 
 signed for its use, as being the place in which 
 it should lay its eggs. On the other hand, the 
 caterpillar would have a very different view of 
 the beneficence of the Being who made both 
 itself and the Ichneumon. 
 
 I repeat, therefore, to bring forward instances 
 of advantages or even blessings to one being, 
 even if we select Man, as proofs of the wisdom 
 and beneficence of God, is, and must be, a partial 
 and one-sided view of Creation : and this, if I 
 understand them aright, is an unmistakeably 
 weak point in the arguments of the writers of 
 the Bridgewater Treatises, and of Natural Theo- 
 logians in general. 
 
 The present writer, therefore, will bring for- 
 
 H. II 
 
1 62 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 ward but few of such instances, or perhaps none, 
 as proofs of wisdom and beneficence; for, as has 
 been already stated, they are self-evident when 
 only a personal or selfish view is assumed. 
 
 Qn the other hand, it will be the object of 
 this Essay to discover God's wisdom and bene- 
 ficence, as far as Man's limited powers can trace 
 it, in Creation as a whole : or rather in those 
 great principles which govern the evolution and 
 development of all Beings in the world. 
 
 The reader must, therefore, bear in mind that 
 any observations which seem to shew direct 
 instances of wisdom and beneficence towards 
 Creatures, must not be isolated from the chain 
 or circle of physical phenomena as well as from 
 other beings with which they are intimately con- 
 nected. Such observations will ever be of a 
 limited, partial and inaccurate character. And 
 we must remember that besides this system of 
 dependent causes and effects, there still remains 
 the far deeper question, Why have animals ever 
 existed at all ? 
 
 We may add to this such a question as the 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 163 
 
 following, Why is it necessary, if we admit some, 
 that others should prey upon them, and so cause 
 a certain amount of pain, rather than that the 
 power of increase in those preyed upon be limit- 
 ed? Whichever way we turn to find indications 
 of wisdom, we find that they are only contingent 
 upon other circumstances, which raise a fresh 
 question as to the wisdom of their existence. 
 
 Hence, what we may deem an instance of 
 wisdom in one case is so relatively to some 
 other conditions which exist, and these must 
 be accounted for and their wisdom proved. 
 
 What, then, is the final result we come to ? 
 Simply this. The Wisdom of God as displayed 
 in the works of Creation is synonymous with 
 the Will of God. 
 
 Now this is true in the broadest sense, as far 
 as the creation of everything both in time and 
 space is concerned, including Man himself. Or, 
 if we first say, that it was the will of God to 
 create a moral being, Man ; then, we can some- 
 what estimate the wisdom of the existing re- 
 lationships among the different orders of beings 
 
 II 2 
 
164 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 Ln the world so far as they bear upon Man's 
 existence and hopes. 
 
 In endeavouring to trace the wisdom of God 
 we must view it in this latter sense only, that is 
 to say by making it contingent upon some one 
 instance of the exercise of His Omnipotent 
 Will. 
 
 Manis limited insight into the methods and 
 purposes of the Deity compel him to come to 
 this conclusion. It may be very like cutting 
 the Gordian knot, but when once we get beyond 
 positive evidence and try to investigate causes 
 and motives we are attempting to escape beyond 
 the confines of the human intellect. Not that 
 man may not try to penetrate some way into 
 the labyrinth of truth and track out the clue to 
 the discovery of her Final Cause; but he will 
 probably never succeed in estimating aright in 
 every instance the secret purposes of God until 
 the time shall come when " we shall know as we 
 are known 1 ." 
 
 i Several instances of such false estimate of purposes could 
 be cited. (See pp. 12 and 13, in the paper on Natural 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 165 
 
 Recognising, then, the fact that the wisdom 
 of God in nature is synonymous with the will 
 of God, we will isolate one act of creation alone 
 as representing God's will, viz. that of the Crea- 
 tion of Man. 
 
 The purpose of this Essay will henceforth be 
 to shew the wisdom and beneficence of God as 
 exhibited in Evolution and its consequences, 
 especially in its bearings upon that assumption. 
 
 If now we proceed to search for proofs of the 
 Beneficence of the Creator as distinct from His 
 Wisdom, we shall find ourselves apparently in- 
 volved in even greater difficulties than in tracing 
 evidences of Divine wisdom. 
 
 We can only reason from man's estimate 
 of beneficence ; which, apart from revelation, 
 takes no higher form than natural kindliness ; 
 and judging by that, the evidences of it from 
 nature may be fairly questioned : while apparent 
 proof of the very opposite can quite as, if not 
 more, readily be produced. 
 
 Theology considered with reference to Modern Philosophy, by the 
 writer, Trans, of the Victoria Institute, Vol. VII.) 
 
1 66 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 Indeed, it will be remembered that Lucretius 
 of old declared that the world could not have 
 been created by the gods or for their pleasure, 
 in consequence of the great amount of physical 
 evil present in it. We may notice also that 
 the existence of physical evils, which ranges 
 over every class of natural phenomena that 
 concerns living beings, has ever been the per- 
 plexing feature in nature, not merely to the 
 Democrital but all other philosophies of every 
 age ; and still is the basis of one of the argu- 
 ments of the modern Atheist 1 . 
 
 If, now, we are required to shew evidence 
 of the beneficence of God as evinced by the 
 Evolution of Living Things, it is very difficult 
 if not absolutely impossible to find a satisfactory 
 answer from the works of Creation alone. 
 
 1 The present writer was requested (March 12, 1872) to 
 deliver a lecture on 'The Argument of Design,' in Mr. 
 Bradlaugh's Hall of Science; and in the discussion which en- 
 sued with professing Atheists (Secularists) he was most forcibly 
 struck with the intense feeling they exhibited with reference to 
 physical evils; realizing to his mind, more fully than anything 
 else could have done, the sad hopelessness of p. man who looks 
 for no future beyond the grave. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 1 67 
 
 If, for example, we try to estimate the amount 
 of comfort against discomfort, pleasure against 
 pain, happiness against unhappiness, as shewn by 
 the animal creation ; even if it be granted that 
 there is a preponderance of the former, yet 
 we cannot deny that the quantity of the latter 
 nullifies all idea of absolute beneficence: pre- 
 suming it to have been all the work of the same 
 Almighty Creator. 
 
 We may reasonably ask, If God could will, 
 and had infinite power to execute, why does 
 He permit the existence of physical evil at 
 all ? Why not make a world exhibiting absolute 
 beneficence in every, the minutest detail, both for 
 animals and man ? 
 
 Now, no study of external nature alone has 
 ever offered a satisfactory answer to such ques- 
 tions. 
 
 A few reflections, such as the above, soon con- 
 vince us that the words goodness and beneficence 
 can only be considered from a relative point 
 of view. They are doubtless absolute qualities 
 or attributes of God's own Holy Essence; but 
 
1 68 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 in their application to Living Things a careful 
 scrutiny of the conditions of existence of all 
 kinds of life cannot possibly bring out more 
 than a relative state of happiness or comfort. 
 
 Let us consider this more in detail : and the 
 first question which naturally arises is, Why have 
 animals existed at all ? or, What is the object or 
 design of life ? Limiting the enquiry to the 
 animal creation, exclusive of Man, and endea- 
 vouring to estimate what advantages any animal 
 may appear to gain by living at all, a palpable 
 answer in favor of some decided advantage is not 
 forthcoming. Seeking for food, eating until satis- 
 fied, sleeping, with some sense of enjoyment when 
 free from terror of an enemy or especially at 
 the period of pairing, when pleasure of a social 
 kind is tolerably evident, make up the average 
 existence of an animal. Its prey is not so easily 
 obtained if it be carnivorous, but that it must 
 be wary and watchful ; nor is its own chance 
 of escape from an enemy so perfect but that 
 it may sooner or later fall a victim. It is very 
 difficult to say positively that its total amount 
 
EVOLUTION' AND RELIGION. 169 
 
 of enjoyment more than compensates for its 
 total amount of discomfort, fear, or physical 
 pain. And, if it be the work of a good Creator, 
 our ideas of absolute beneficence at once lead us 
 to ask, Why is not its existence one of perpetual 
 and absolute enjoyment without the possibility 
 of pain, whether of body or mind 1 ? 
 
 Moreover, animals appear to be utterly uncon- 
 scious of their existence we cannot conceive 
 any animal reflecting as to why it exists. It 
 simply obeys impulses from within and without : 
 it acts unconsciously by instinct : it may boast 
 of a certain amount of reason, but its actions are 
 nearly always regulated by law. Each kind of 
 animal has its own peculiar prey. The same 
 kinds of the predaceous seek for the same kinds 
 of food and always in the same way. Each 
 kind frequents the same sort of habitat ; thus, 
 insects lay their eggs instinctively on such kinds 
 of plants best suited to the caterpillars which 
 shall issue from them. So too as far as fun and 
 
 1 The idea of suffering amongst wild animals having been due 
 to 'the fall of man' must now be entirely abandoned, as without 
 a shadow of foundation either from Scripture or science. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 amusement are appreciated, they always play in 
 the same way, each animal after its kind 1 . So 
 that in point of fact all the specialities of the 
 existence of animals are regulated by laws. 
 
 It will not be devoid of interest to repeat here 
 the differences between an animal which obeys 
 laws without reflecting upon them as such, and 
 Man who can do so and uses his free will to 
 obey them or not, in order to introduce an im- 
 portant principle of Nature. 
 
 An animal in a state of nature eats and 
 drinks when it is hungry and thirsty, and does 
 so until it is satisfied : but does not eat* merely 
 because eating is pleasurable. It has no power 
 to reflect or to be conscious of the fact that 
 eating is pleasant and a "thing to be desired," 
 so never eats for eating's sake; whereas man, 
 who knows "good and evil," that is, can recog- 
 nize the purpose of these natural laws and that 
 they are good, has distinctly abused them, and 
 
 1 Ex. During at least the author's life, there has not been the 
 slightest change in the habits of flies which dart backwards 
 and forwards in a zigzag manner under some pendent object in a 
 room, pirouetting whenever they meet ! 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 1 7 1 
 
 so committed evil, simply because he can reflect 
 upon the pleasure as a thing apart from the object 
 of the law : he has indulged that pleasure when 
 the law had no need to be executed ; has exalted 
 the 'means' at the expense of the 'end' ; has 
 (and herein is involved the principle) not only 
 so vitiated his own nature by breaking down the 
 efficiency of natural law, but has imparted the 
 irregularity to his descendants in accordance 
 with the well-known physiological law of heredi- 
 tary acquirements, and which may be expressed 
 by the words "the sins of the fathers shall be 
 visited upon the children." 
 
 Again, the sexual appetites are in animals peri- 
 odically regulated by law. Animals obey that law 
 at stated periods. They do not break through 
 it from any conscious idea of pleasure per se ; 
 and so never indulge the appetite with any 
 such motive apart from obeying the natural 
 law 1 . 
 
 1 This is certainly not without exceptions ; yet, on the one 
 hand, the general obedience to the natural law is well-nigh 
 universal, and on the other, animals have no consciousness or 
 idea of law at all. 
 
I/ 2 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 Man has done so, and with a like result. 
 
 Such I believe to be the Origin of Moral 
 Evil. 
 
 Lastly, we have no reason for believing that 
 animals possess the merest shadow of a suspicion 
 of the possibility of a future existence, of the 
 being of a God, or of duty to any Superior Being 
 at all. 
 
 Now, knowing as we do what pleasure is, and 
 what pain is, we can conceive of a creation 
 of animals capable of enjoying a far greater 
 degree of pleasure than any which exists on 
 this earth; and if we assume an Omnipotent 
 and Beneficent Creator to have by His own 
 will called the animals into existence which 
 inhabit this world, we cannot but think that 
 their short sphere of life might have been ren- 
 dered absolutely happy, or at least far happier 
 than we have any reason for supposing them 
 to be. 
 
 Our actual ideas, therefore, of the beneficence 
 of the Deity, when acquired solely from the 
 observations of the habits and general state of 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 existence of animals, become apparently much 
 restricted. 
 
 To return to the questions, Why do animals 
 exist at all, and what is the object and design 
 o'f life ? We have seen that a scrutiny of the 
 lives of animals supplies us with no satisfactory 
 answer at all. For what has been repeatedly 
 urged by Atheists and Sceptics as much might 
 be said against, as for, beneficence in the works 
 of Creation. 
 
 But, as soon as we take Man into considera- 
 tion, the light begins to dawn, and we can at 
 once trace some clue to the interpretation 
 of the question of their existence. But even 
 now we must first find an answer to the higher 
 question, Why am I here ? for it is in the reply to 
 this that the former question finds its response. 
 
 There is but one reply, which is, that God 
 so willed it. This, as before, cuts the Gordian 
 knot, but we cannot find any other satisfactory 
 answer from nature 1 . 
 
 1 I repeat, Man cannot have been a necessary result of Evoltir 
 (ion. The gap between him and all animals is far too great, not- 
 
174 EVOLUTION- AND RELIGION. 
 
 Moreover, notwithstanding their advantages, 
 when we compare the state of existence of 
 human beings with that of animals, it might 
 be reasonably asserted that the latter under 
 such limitations as they are seem often far 
 better off than a vast number of our race ; 
 for it is the few, not the many of us, that succeed 
 in having an abundance of this world's comforts. 
 Hence, presuming no future or better prospects 
 are to be expected after death, constant personal 
 happiness must be looked upon as the ideal 
 acme of conceivable bliss. 
 
 To interpret, then, the object of man's exist- 
 ence, we must turn to Revelation ; and we are at 
 once completely satisfied ; for no answer equals 
 this : it was the will of God that there should be 
 a being who could be moral, and that he should 
 pass through a period of probation, before he 
 
 withstanding his bodily and intellectual affinities, to be accounted 
 for by any laws of development that we know of; nor can we 
 conceive of any force capable of being differentiated into the Will, 
 a power which may be in direct opposition to forces of nature. 
 We are then justified in concluding some special circumstances 
 to have obtained in the first production of a human being. [See 
 Genesis and Geology, a Sermon, by the writer, p. 20. (Hardcwick. )] 
 
E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 1 75 
 
 be fitted to enjoy that state to which his spirit- 
 ual part is naturally best adapted. 
 
 But this explanation, this key to unlock the 
 mysteries of all life, cannot be satisfactorily nor 
 easily found by the study of nature alone. 
 
 Human consciousness may have been intui- 
 tively persuaded of the truth of a 'Redeemer 
 who would stand at the latter day upon the 
 earth/ and who would set all things right ; but 
 it is the rare instance of a soul self-conscious 
 of its own natural integrity appealing to the 
 Author of its existence, trusting confidently in 
 His wisdom and justice, and not doubting His 
 beneficence even when writhing under extreme 
 physical torture. 
 
 We must bear in mind, too, that, as far as 
 all animals are concerned, we cannot say that 
 physical evils are necessarily, if at all, of a dis- 
 ciplinary character; that, as a parent chastises 
 his child with feelings of love infused into his 
 sense of just retribution, so God does the same 
 in nature. This may be the interpretation 
 which natural religion would give us with re- 
 
176 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 ference to Man ; but the mere study of animal 
 life irrespective of him for physical evils affect 
 both alike does not furnish us with any such 
 reply; simply because we have no grounds for 
 believing any animal to be moral, or to have a 
 sense of duty. 
 
 But with Man it is very different. Physical 
 evils, which cover the range of all classes of 
 circumstances, are of the nature of discipline. 
 Had man never fallen, and so vitiated his right 
 view of things, he would no more have regarded 
 them as 'evils' than do the beasts of the fields. 
 But it is just because he is now conscious of 
 evil as well as good, that they have become dis- 
 ciplinary ; and in proportion to the degradation 
 of his mind so will he be inclined to abuse his 
 Maker for them, if not to "curse God and die." 
 On the other hand, the humbler and purer a 
 man's heart is, the clearer will he "see God" in 
 nature and the less will he feel external evils 
 to be really 'evils,' or that they partake of the 
 character of discipline at all 1 . 
 
 1 I would most urgently desire the reader to bear in mind 
 
- E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. I 77 
 
 But now let us return, and see how the 
 question, Why do animals exist ? finds its reply 
 in that to the question, Why do I exist? 
 
 As has been already said, the vast majority of 
 men in all ages could find no answer that was 
 at all satisfactory ; for they either looked for no 
 future existence, or if they did, to one far different 
 from that for which a modern Christian hopes. 
 
 We must clearly understand that The future 
 existence of man can be the only interpretation 
 of his existence here. The very ability he pos- 
 sesses to criticize his condition on earth and to 
 imagine a far happier state, not to add an 
 internal and conscious longing for another life, 
 
 the sharp line of demarcation between 'physical' and 'moral' 
 evil with its results. I believe that much confusion has arisen 
 from the close analogy between these two things, the one ranging 
 over the physical world, the other over the moral; hence they 
 have been supposed to be due to some common source. This, 
 I believe to be a thoroughly erroneous idea. Physical 'evils' 
 represent the principle of Inideality, as I would propose to call it, 
 i.e. the fact that 'Relative Perfection' only exists, is part of 
 :the constitution of the world, and arises out of Laws of Evolur 
 tion. Moral evil is due to the fact of man's abusing natural law, 
 as stated above, and not using it only in obedience to natural im- 
 pulse j this is what is called 'the fall' in Scriptural language. 
 
 H. 12 
 
E voL UTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 is a witness of itself that he is at least by nature 
 qualified to enjoy a better life, and has a right 
 to consider that God would not have given him 
 those yearnings if He did not intend to gratify 
 them. On the contrary, if he do not believe in 
 a God and a future state, the Atheist is bound 
 to shew whence those feelings arise, out of what 
 they have been developed, and what they imply. 
 
 They are qualities which alone separate Man 
 essentially from all other creatures. Neverthe- 
 less the characters which link man to animals, 
 viz. his bodily structure and his minor intellec- 
 tual faculties, throw a great light upon the final 
 cause of the existence of the animate (and 
 through them of the vegetal) creation. 
 
 It is when we reflect how the organization of 
 man is fundamentally the same in all essential 
 particulars as that of every vertebrate, and how 
 his appearance upon the stage of life did not 
 take place until the world had in its previous acts 
 displayed a grand succession of vertebrate life : 
 groups coming on, crossing the stage of exist- 
 ence, playing their part and then disappearing, 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 1 79 
 
 ever and anon giving rise to new beings : it is 
 only when we reflect upon such a panoramic 
 sight as this, and gaze down the interminable 
 vista of the past, and find that man, the last 
 member of the same troupe, came forward only 
 at the very end of this long line of ancestry, 
 that we learn how he has closed the series and 
 revealed, its final cause. 
 
 In regarding Man thus, as the last stroke in 
 the great Creator's design of terrestrial life, it may 
 be noticed again that, as far as his bodily struc- 
 ture at least is concerned, he certainly cannot be 
 separated from the Primates ; for it is in them 
 that we see the last links of the chain of verte- 
 brate life. Physiologists have also clearly proved 
 that the same laws of development govern the 
 human embryo as those of other animals ; that 
 is, it passes through representative stages of 
 other vertebrates in an ascending scale. More- 
 over, man is not without rudimentary organs 
 like other animals. Hence it will be seen that 
 the facts upon which the doctrine of Evolution 
 is based, when suggested to account for animal 
 
 122 
 
 Of 
 
180 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 forms, apply necessarily to man's body, though 
 exceptional features imply interference. 
 
 If Evolution be true for the former, it would 
 seem that it must apply to man's body at least. 
 Thus far, then, man cannot be severed from 
 animals. So that we might almost say, in order 
 to produce man it was necessary, to be con- 
 sistent with the plan adopted by God, to evolve 
 successively that long line of vertebrates from 
 the Silurian Epoch until the present day 1 . 
 
 Now, then, we may see how the popular ex- 
 pression, 'All things are created for man,' has 
 a new meaning thrown into it. It is abso- 
 lutely untrue and positively presumptuous in 
 its current aspect. Indeed it will not be amiss 
 to consider it, and point out the untenableness 
 of that popular notion. 
 
 It is quite true that man cannot do without 
 a certain or even great number of things 
 animals and plants for his food and clothing, 
 
 1 See the writer's strictures on Mr. Lewes' expressions Nature's 
 bungling, Feeling her way, &c. &c. with reference to embryology. 
 Natural Theology considered with reference to Modern Philosophy. 
 Trans, of Victoria Institute, Vol. VII. p. 16. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 minerals for building and the uses in the arts, 
 and so forth ; but these clearly constitute but a 
 small part of nature. Many things are at present 
 useless to him, and many other things which he 
 may desire, and even know where they are to 
 be found, are inaccessible to him. 
 
 It is a poor remark to say, that everything 
 is of some good to man if he did but know 
 what the use was. This involves a contradic- 
 tion. On the one hand, there is an instinctive 
 feeling that it is derogatory to the Creator to 
 suppose him to have created anything without 
 a good use ; on the other, it shews God to have 
 acted, as it were, capriciously in not having 
 informed man of the value of the thing for thou- 
 sands of years; and in many instances he has 
 doubtless not yet discovered the uses. So that 
 in all such cases the animals, plants or mine- 
 rals, are practically useless. 
 
 It is quite clear, then; that the existence of 
 every plant or animal under their present distri- 
 bution and characters cannot be solely for the 
 good of man. He, however, like the animals, 
 
1 82 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 simply uses those he requires, but he has to 
 make discoveries and experiments to find out 
 what are most suitable for his own purposes. 
 Indeed, nothing more can be stated as to the 
 design of creation being for man's good, than 
 that God has placed him in the midst of plants 
 and animals of almost infinite diversity of form 
 and properties, and has left him to his own 
 intelligence to make all the use he can out of 
 them, without any clue as to which may be 
 useful or not, beyond what he can discover to 
 be so for himself. 
 
 We must take a far wider view of creation 
 than the popular one I have mentioned, though 
 at the same time we must bear in mind that 
 man is still the ultimate object of it, at least 
 up to the present time. 
 
 It was necessary to enter, at least briefly, into 
 these considerations, for the popular statement 
 above quoted would seem to be very generally 
 received, and expresses a supposed recognition 
 of absolute beneficence as shewn in the creation 
 of animals and plants for the use of man. This 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 183 
 
 popular view may have been based upon the 
 idea of direct creative fiats, or drawn from Gen. i. 
 29, &c. ; but even if Evolution be allowed to take 
 their place the notion would not be altered : for 
 the supposed design does not lie in the methods 
 of production, but in the objects produced by 
 the will of God. 
 
 But while believing all creation to have been 
 designed for man's use, the popular mind cannot 
 but recognize noxious weeds and noisome beasts, 
 and either looks upon them as objective witnesses 
 to the curse pronounced upon the ground for 
 man's sake or else as we have seen believes 
 them to be of some but unknown use. 
 
 Now I maintain the question is a fair one to 
 ask, Are many of use at all ? One more or 
 one less, and if one then many, excluded from 
 the \vorld, would make no practical difference. 
 Plants and animals are constantly becoming 
 exterminated, and their loss is not perceptible. 
 But more than this, for it is not merely a ques- 
 tion of use, there is the fact that many hurt and 
 injure us and others. There are, for example, 
 
1 84 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 the carnivorous animals living upon herbivorous, 
 and this is true for every class of animal life. 
 And when we investigate plants we may ask, 
 If vegetables are for food to support the her- 
 bivora, why should poisonous plants exist, or such 
 as animals cannot eat even if not poisonous ? 
 
 In believing animals and plants to have been 
 brought into existence by the laws of Develop- 
 ment or Evolution, we might at first imagine 
 that it was a necessary result of circumstances 
 under which certain offspring were first placed, 
 that they developed in those 'noxious' directions 
 accordingly, and vice versd, for such as are whole- 
 some or useful. The appearance of fixed laws 
 is so great that some evolutionists seem not to 
 be able to bring themselves to see the hand of 
 Deity in Nature at all! But when Geology 
 reveals the fact that at certain periods in the 
 world's history say the carboniferous we do 
 not know a single animal or plant he could 
 have eaten, there does appear wisdom in intro- 
 ducing man in the later tertiaries when food 
 suited to him had become abundant, notwith- 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 185 
 
 standing such creatures as are necessary for his 
 existence being associated with deadly poisonous 
 herbs and destructive animals. 
 
 Bearing in mind, too, or assuming that man 
 is the ultimate object of the design of Creation, 
 a corresponding wisdom and forethought be- 
 comes apparent in the evolution of such beings, 
 animal and vegetable, as should be useful to him 1 . 
 
 We must never forget that the word 'use ' is 
 purely relative, and not absolute. Weeds are 
 useless to a farmer, not to say injurious, when 
 growing amongst his crops ; but when ploughed 
 down in a fallow field they are useful as con- 
 tributing to the richness of the soil. 
 
 Just as ' Dirt is matter in the wrong place,' 
 so weeds may be said to be ' plants not wanted 
 at the time.' But, more than this, in conse- 
 quence of Evolution myriads of beings have 
 lived and died which could neither be useful 
 
 1 The author cordially agrees with the well-known remarks 
 of Prof. Owen as, to the design in the development of the horse, 
 exhibiting in the gradual approximation to its present structure 
 the unfolding of the divine plan in its line of ancestry. See 
 Comp. Anat. and Phys. of Vertebrates. Vol. III. p. 795. 
 
1 86 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 nor injurious to man ; and so too myriads do 
 the same now ; yet whenever a weed or an ani- 
 mal happens to fall in man's way and strikes 
 his attention by its objectionable character, or 
 is any way offensive to him, then does it at 
 once so far detract from his idea of absolute 
 perfection, and just so far has it a disciplinary 
 value over him. 
 
 Indeed, all things which at any time seem to 
 man to be objectionable or injurious are part of 
 that grand scheme of probation, which finds 
 illustration in every phase of man's condition 
 upon earth. 
 
 But now, let it be particularly observed that 
 this probationary state of things is due to the 
 methods of Evolution; and that all ' physical 
 evils,' from the most disastrous calamities that 
 can befall man to the least troublesome of an- 
 noyances, meet with no explanation until the 
 conviction of a future existence is thoroughly 
 laid hold upon, and that the present one is 
 in every way a disciplinary state of probation 
 for man. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. l8/ 
 
 So, after all, the positive expression in Genesis 
 as to the curse upon the ground finds a certain 
 corroboration in nature in the evplution of 
 every plant and animal which man may now, 
 but which he would not had he not degraded 
 himself, consider an 'evil.' 
 
 But it is to be observed of all God's discipli- 
 nary processes that their value as such is more 
 subjective than objective, for they are discipli- 
 nary or not according to the spirit in which we 
 look at them, not quite in proportion to the 
 actual trouble, annoyance or pain they may 
 cause us. 
 
 Hence we see that the evolution of noxious 
 weeds and noisome beasts, from this human point 
 of view, has been one of the means appointed to 
 teach man not to expect a Paradise on earth : 
 and that the more he frets against his condition 
 here, the more he may feel inclined to murmur 
 against God for allowing annoyances, troubles, 
 and bitter afflictions to afiect him : so that all 
 external ills or evils, or whatever they may be 
 called, appear as so many 'curses' to man in 
 
1 88 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 proportion as his own evil nature requires to be 
 disciplined. 
 
 On the other hand, the sooner he learns to 
 regard every detail of the circumstances of life as 
 so much discipline, the sooner will he become 
 humble and submissive to God : in the same 
 degrees will he feel less and less the penal cha- 
 racter of physical evils, while at the same time 
 rebellious anger melts into filial love, a tho- 
 roughly contented and trustful spirit replaces 
 a discontented one, and he waits for his final 
 redemption in patience and hope. 
 
 This was the view of the great Apostle 
 St Paul, and all that I contend for is, that 
 such a present state of things is due to the 
 will of God, and that He has brought it about 
 mainly by Evolution. 
 
 I make, therefore, no apology for quoting 
 at length a passage which so exactly represents 
 the ideas I have endeavoured to express. 
 
 "I reckon that the sufferings of this present 
 time are not worthy to be compared with the 
 glory which shall be revealed in us. For the 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 189 
 
 earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for 
 the manifestation of the sons of God. For the 
 creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, 
 but by reason of Him who hath subjected the 
 same in hope : because the creature itself also 
 shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption 
 into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
 For we know that the whole creation groaneth 
 and travaileth in pain together until now. And 
 not only they, but ourselves also, which have the 
 firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan 
 within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, 
 the redemption of our body." Rom. viii. 18. 
 
 To the pure in heart alone does God disclose 
 Himself and reveal His works of love. What is 
 proof of wisdom and love in trial or discipline to 
 the faithful believer in God, to the infidel, scoff- 
 ing sceptic, and atheist, is turned into a curse 1 ! 
 
 1 It may be noted that what is here expressed as to the 
 appreciation of man with regard to his condition upon earth, 
 finds its parallel in his future estimate of things, as shewn by 
 the parable of the Vineyard. The actual reward of a penny was 
 the same to all ; but its relative value varied from zero to infinity 
 according to the spirit of the recipient. 
 
1 90 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 To the humble mind is revealed intuitively the 
 deep meaning of this world's inideal 1 condition, 
 whereas such is used by the scoffer as a witness 
 to the incapacity of God or else to the machi- 
 nations of Satan ! 
 
 But, let us remember man's moral constitu- 
 tion is not an absolute unchangeable thing, but 
 admits of development or a ' growth in grace ' ; 
 and let us recognise the will of God in making 
 it such ; then we shall at once see the wisdom 
 of God in adapting the external world to corre- 
 spond with, and to be of such a character as to 
 allow that development in man to take place: 
 and so the very regeneration of man falls under 
 the same great laws of Evolution which bind 
 all the phenomena of nature under one great 
 harmonious principle. 
 
 On the other hand, had everything been abso- 
 lutely and perfectly adapted to man's wants 
 
 1 Inideal, Inideality, are words proposed by the writer to 
 express the relative state of perfection which exists in this world. 
 See the Law of Inideality more fully treated of in his paper, 
 Natural Theology considered with reference to Modern Philosophy^ 
 loc. cit. p. 23. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 and desires, no progress would have been pos- 
 sible, and other conditions than those to which 
 he had been accustomed could be no improve- 
 ment upon them : but as it is, man admits of 
 progress, and external conditions are exactly 
 such as to secure his moral development by 
 means of a probationary existence. 
 
 Having seen how the final cause of all animal 
 life finds its explanation only in that of Man, 
 and that it is more in the sense supplied by 
 Evolution that creatures have been of use to 
 man, than that each animal and plant should 
 be individually of some good to him; we were 
 led on to consider somewhat of the apparent 
 intention of God in permitting objects which 
 seem obnoxious to us to be in the world ; and we 
 discovered that they are so more in a relative than 
 absolute sense, and moreover that their existence 
 is in harmony with the grand scheme of pro- 
 bation which embraces all terrestrial conditions 
 in their bearing upon man. 
 
 I pass on now to notice more particularly 
 certain features of creation, arising out of Evolu- 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 tion, and which have not hitherto received the 
 candid attention by writers on natural theology, 
 to which they are entitled, when the object is 
 to endeavour to trace wisdom and beneficence 
 in the designs of the Creator. 
 
 One of the most remarkable results of this 
 mixture of 'good' and 'evil' in the world, 
 while we regard God as the author of all, is, 
 that at one time he seems to have permitted 
 or created an 'evil,' at another to have created 
 an antidote for that evil. 
 
 Thus, in allowing diseases to enter as a phe- 
 nomenon of living things, He has at the same 
 time imparted to organic nature the power of 
 reparation from injury and recovery from disease, 
 as well as furnished remedies which man can 
 discover by his intelligence. 
 
 While supplying man with animals as his food, 
 at the same time He has allowed some dozen or 
 more parasites to attack and injure him 1 . 
 
 1 See the writer's strictures on a remark by Mr Herbert 
 Spencer as to the existence of two Principles ' Good' and ' Evil,' 
 Natural 77teology considered with reference to Modern Philosophy, 
 'loc. fit. pp. 23, 24. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 1 93 
 
 Again, while furnishing animals with the 
 means of concealment, defence, or escape from 
 their enemies, He has supplied those enemies 
 with means of concealment too, as well as of 
 attack and capture. 
 
 Now this observation bears upon a remarkable 
 misapprehension in the reasoning adopted by a 
 certain class of thinkers, who not unfrequently 
 fancy they see the wisdom or benevolence of 
 God in the one class of phenomena, i.e. when 
 there appears to be some 'advantage' or 'good'; 
 but do not seem to see that the 'disadvantage,' 
 or 'evil 1 ,' is as much due to the Creator's will 
 as the other 2 . 
 
 This phenomenon of the existence of a mix- 
 ture of 'good' and 'evil' which is of very 
 wide application, is a result of that 'struggle 
 for existence' which is a well-recognized law 
 
 1 It must be distinctly understood that the word 'evil* as 
 here used only signifies the popular expression for certain physi- 
 cal facts, and in no way implies sin or its effects. 
 
 8 As an illustration : It was once remarked to the writer 
 that the presence of 'docks' (Rumex) was a wise provision of 
 the Creator where stinging nettles abounded ! 
 
 H. 13 
 
194 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 of Nature and is applicable to all kinds of life. 
 To a partial or restricted view this law may 
 appear as a 'fatal' result of undirected natural 
 forces; but I maintain though God chose to 
 establish such, as a condition of life on earth, He 
 had a motive in so doing : and that motive was 
 in its ultimate bearings to surround Man with 
 inideal circumstances, and so render his life on 
 earth probationary in every way. 
 
 One of the most curious of phenomena asso- 
 ciated with this peculiar feature of organic life, 
 mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, is what 
 has been termed Mimicry. 
 
 It is now known that this principle extends 
 over very many forms of animal and even 
 vegetal life : not that it obtains absolutely in 
 the structure or appearance of every one of 
 such mimetic forms, but that there are probably 
 few groups in which some member is not 'pro- 
 tected' by its external appearance assuming 
 that of other animals with which it is usually 
 associated, or else of something in the environ- 
 ing circumstances of its habitat. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 1 95 
 
 But, what is most remarkable, not only may 
 mimicry be a feature of such creatures as are 
 preyed upon, but it is sometimes also of the 
 animals which prey upon them ; so that while 
 the former have a fair chance of escape, the 
 latter in their turn have a fair and like chance 
 of capturing their prey 1 . 
 
 It might be questioned how far wisdom and 
 beneficence find place in these remarkable 
 phenomena. A direct and favourable answer is 
 not easy to see. Nevertheless, consistently with 
 the ' inideal ' scheme adopted by the Creator, 
 the result and we can only judge of motives 
 by results is that a fair share of happiness and 
 immunity from care is apportioned to every 
 animal. 
 
 That mimetic features are due to laws of 
 Evolution will scarcely be doubted or denied : 
 as, like all other works of design in Nature, they 
 are not each absolute and perfect, but admit of 
 gradations from one extreme to another ; on the 
 
 1 Many illustrations will be found in Mr Wallace's work,. 
 On Natural Selection, pp. 45 to 119. 
 
 132 
 
196 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 one hand while little or no trace of mimetism 
 is* apparent in some forms of a group, yet we 
 come at last through gradations to creatures of 
 the same group which seem to be decidedly 
 mimetic and designed. 
 
 It is not the purpose of this Essay to attempt 
 to furnish theoretical views as to the secondary 
 causes which have brought about Evolution, 
 and therefore it will not be urged that ' natural 
 selection/ 'the sense of sight/ or other cause, 
 may have induced mimetic appearances. I 
 simply recognize these appearances as curious 
 phenomena of creation, and would observe that 
 the relative immunity from attack on the one 
 side, and the correlative power of capturing prey 
 on the other, are consequences of mimetism. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LAW OF INIDEALITY AND THE IDEA OF 
 PERFECTION.- CONCLUSION. 
 
 IT cannot be too clearly understood, nor too 
 persistently remembered, that one great result 
 of the process of development or Evolution, as 
 it has been carried out in the production 
 of animals and plants, and we may add the 
 diversity of structure of the earth's 'crust,' is 
 that want, or falling short, of the ideal or any 
 absolute degree of perfection which the human 
 mind can conceive. In other words there obtains 
 universally that relative or inideal condition of 
 things which is a result of Evolution. 
 
 No sound philosophical speculations or deduc- 
 tions can be made unless this principle be 
 thoroughly adopted. 
 
 In addition to what has been already said on 
 this matter, it will not be necessary to furnish 
 
1 98 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 more evidence than is afforded by selecting two 
 prominent features which especially illustrate 
 this principle. 
 
 The first to be discussed will be found in the 
 structure of organisms, and is known as Rudi- 
 mentary organs: the second instance of that 
 want of perfection will be found in the conditions 
 of the sphere of existence of all organic beings 
 upon this earth. 
 
 Archdeacon Paley, in his Nattiral Theology, or, 
 as he defines it, "The discovery of evidences of 
 design attesting to the existing attributes of the 
 Deity collected from appearances in Nature," 
 takes anatomy as the subject of his discourse, 
 and argues well and soundly from the structure 
 and use of organs as to the existence of design 
 and thence to that of an All-wise Designer. 
 
 But, he does not draw deductions from rudi- 
 mentary or aborted organs, nor from useless 
 forms of structure. Yet they are as patent to 
 any student of anatomy as are those of full 
 function whether of the animal or vegetal king- 
 dom. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 1 99 
 
 What argument do these rudimentary organs 
 furnish? At first sight apparently as much 
 against design as well-developed organs do for 
 it! 
 
 It is true that some of the more advanced 
 writers on Natural Theology have taken note 
 of them, but for the most part they have been 
 passed over in silence. Hence the argument of 
 design, as hitherto propounded, is not guarded 
 against one point of attack from those Evolu- 
 tionists who do not recognize design in creation 
 at all. 
 
 Dr Whewell's interpretation of the meaning 
 of rudimentary organs will illustrate the only 
 idea which could be brought forward at a time 
 when Evolution was not generally accepted. 
 
 That learned writer says in his Plurality of 
 Worlds, p. 345: "In the plan of creation we have 
 a profusion of examples where similar visible 
 structures do not answer a similar purpose, 
 where, so far as we can see, the structure answers 
 no purpose in many cases, but exists, as we may 
 say, for the sake of similarity, the similarity 
 
200 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 being a general law, the result, it would seem, of 
 a creative energy, which is wider in its operation 
 than the particular purpose." 
 
 This is clearly no explanation at all, and we 
 almost feel inclined to adopt Mr Lewes' expres- 
 sion, that such reasoning is "a specimen of pe- 
 dantic trifling worthy of no intellect above the 
 Pongos V 
 
 Now, the doctrine of Evolution satisfactorily 
 accounts for the existence of rudimentary 
 organs, and no other theory has as yet done so. 
 
 The writer must assume the readers of this 
 Essay to be more or less familiar with instances 
 of rudimentary organs, and does not, therefore, 
 deem it necessary to bring forward more than 
 may be required for the general argument, in 
 support of the wisdom of the Creator, as 
 displayed in the evolution of animals and 
 plants. 
 
 Their importance in regard to any discussion 
 of this sort cannot be overrated, for they have a 
 
 1 Mr Darwin's Hypotheses, by Mr G. H. Lewes, in April, 
 June and July Nos. of the Fortnightly Review, 1868. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 2OI 
 
 strong primd facie evidence against such an attri- 
 bute, and one which opponents have not failed 
 to seize upon as witnessing from their point of 
 view to the working of immanent forces instead 
 of a personal God 1 . 
 
 On the other hand, the writer maintains they 
 really testify to the harmony or unity of those 
 fundamental principles of Evolution, upon which 
 the scheme of creation has been founded by the 
 Creator. 
 
 Now, the first inference deduced from a care- 
 ful study of all kinds of organs is that while 
 design appears very pronounced in some, it is 
 wanting altogether in others, such as rudimentary 
 structures. Secondly, of the very best instances 
 of design such as the eye no organ can be 
 called absolutely perfect, nor one than which we 
 cannot conceive a better. 
 
 Thus, as the writer has elsewhere expressed 2 , 
 
 1 E.g. the following are Mr Lewes' expressions : "bungling," 
 "Nature feeling her way," "tentative," "blundering," &c. 
 loc. cit. 
 
 a Natural Theology, considered with reference to Modern 
 Philosophy (Transactions of tfie Victoria Institute, Vol. vil.). 
 
202 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 from such an elaborate organ as the human eye 
 to a mere pigment-spot of an Echinoderm 
 from the well-developed legs of the majority of 
 Lizards to the rudimentary and useless repre- 
 sentatives of legs in certain snake-like genera 
 organs of varying degrees of character can be 
 found which impress us proportionately with 
 corresponding degrees of evidence of design : so 
 that as structures apparently adapted for certain 
 ends in some organisms are found less and less 
 so in kindred forms, so design, as applied to the 
 former, from being very pronounced becomes, as 
 it were, less and less so until it disappears alto- 
 gether. Thus if the following genera be com- 
 pared, it will be seen how a gradual degeneration 
 of the limbs (both in the legs and the number of 
 toes) indicates, so to say, a corresponding dying 
 out of purpose, till at last nothing remains but 
 rudiments under the skin, in which the intention 
 of locomotion is finally gone and that design 
 has disappeared altogether: Zonurus griseus, 
 Tachydromus sexlineatus, Saurophis tetradactylus, 
 Chamcesaura angtiina, Pseudopus Pallasii. Now 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 2O3 
 
 these examples are isolated instances in as 
 many distinct contemporary genera. The same 
 phenomenon may be witnessed in successive 
 generations from an early type. Thus the 
 Palceotherium had three well-developed toes on 
 each foot, the central one being slightly the 
 larger. In the Hipparion of a later period the 
 two lateral ones became much smaller, and 
 nearly resembled the pair of rudimentary toes 
 of a cow, while the central toe and its support- 
 ing bones were proportionally larger. In the 
 present epoch we have its descendant, the horse, 
 with only one toe or hoof, nothing but the rudi- 
 mentary * splint bones' corresponding to the 
 two lateral lost toes remaining. Nature is 
 replete with such illustrations of rudiments, 
 and the tertiary strata at least abound, as we 
 have seen, with these transitional forms, in which 
 organs in the earlier cases possessed functional 
 power, but gradually disappear in the later and 
 are finally lost altogether. 
 
 Hence we see that while on the one hand 
 innumerable examples can be found such as 
 
204 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 Teleologists have hitherto seized upon for their 
 illustrations, and which to a believer in a 
 personal and creating God evince unmistakeable 
 and admirable design ; on the other hand a large 
 class of structures can be pointed out which 
 either scarcely admits of the word at all, or else 
 seems to militate against it entirely. 
 
 The explanation, then, hitherto offered by Na- 
 tural Theologians such as that by Dr Whewell 
 is quite inadequate, not to say unphiloso- 
 phical, and directly opposed to the very prin- 
 ciples upon which the argument of design is 
 based. 
 
 On the other hand, these rudimentary struc- 
 tures cannot be accounted for except by Evolu- 
 tion; to which doctrine, however, they form one 
 of the strongest witnesses. For, were any abrupt 
 changes of structure constantly occurring, we 
 should at once begin to infer that some power 
 was as constantly at work to interfere and to 
 make such changes, somewhat after the notions 
 of the cataclysms and recreations of the early 
 geological theorists. When sudden breaks be- 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 2O5 
 
 tween allied forms appear to occur, the balance 
 of probability is greatly in favour of the inference 
 of the previous existence of extinct forms, which 
 once united such well-differentiated types as 
 may now exist 1 . 
 
 It may be objected that rudimentary forms 
 are sometimes regarded too much in the light 
 of atrophied conditions and not as origins of 
 future organs ; and it is worth while observing 
 that there are two ways of regarding them, 
 both, however, equally in accordance with the 
 doctrine of Evolution ; and in many cases it 
 is at present impossible to say with certainty 
 which would be the correct view. Thus, in the 
 case of the lizards, it may be that the condition 
 
 1 The writer is quite aware that many anatomists still cling 
 to the idea of an 'absolute use,' and say that rudimentary organs 
 have such though it is not always to be detected, because some 
 may appear to be resolved into excretory organs or as points of 
 attachment of muscles, c. ; but a thoroughly impartial view, the 
 author believes, would dispel such notions. Without denying 
 such uses as the above being possible, he yet maintains that rudi- 
 mentary structures exist which are useless and could be dispensed 
 with without the slightest detriment to the individual ; such as 
 the rudimentary pistils in the male flowers of such as are sexually 
 ' distinct. 
 
206 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 of the limbs in Pseudopus, which are rudi- 
 mentary and concealed beneath the skin, was 
 the forerunner of the state of the limbs repre- 
 sented by the other genera given above. The 
 argument, however, is equally sound on either 
 supposition. On the first, the design of the 
 limbs dies out, and is replaced by the snake- 
 like method of progression ; on the other, the 
 latter mode of locomotion gradually disappears 
 and is replaced by limbs. 
 
 As another instance we may compare the 
 rudimentary wings of a Penguin with those of 
 the Struthious birds. In these latter we seem to 
 have an affinity to the Dinosauria, so that there 
 is some presumptive evidence in favour of the 
 wings of the Struthionida representing the 
 antecedent but arrested condition of those with 
 full -power, as of the flying Carinatce. On the 
 other hand, as the Penguin belongs to this 
 group, its wing might reasonably be regarded 
 as an atrophied condition, but modified, subject 
 to the Law of Compensation, to enable that bird 
 to dive and swim. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 2O/ 
 
 The law here mentioned is one of great im- 
 portance, and disproves the justice or reason- 
 ableness of any charges, founded upon the 
 existence of rudimentary organs, which the 
 Positivist or Materialist may make. 
 
 This law is of universal application, and fully 
 discovers to us the power of the Creator. For, 
 if it were asserted that it was proof of feeble- 
 ness to allow an organ to degenerate and its 
 function to vanish, it is as much a proof of 
 power to be able to compensate the organism 
 for such loss, by extra development in some 
 new direction. The instances given above will 
 suffice to illustrate this principle : and the 
 wisdom of such a method is obvious in thus 
 rendering creatures capable of great variety of 
 form and function, which would have been much 
 restricted with other and more uniform struc- 
 tures ; and moreover enabling a greater diversity 
 of life to maintain itself under the ever-varying 
 conditions of environment. 
 
 It is a law or principle which is found rang- 
 ing over the vegetal kingdom as well as the 
 
208 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 animal. A few illustrations will shew this. 
 Weak stems are often compensated for by 
 powers of climbing; so that more plants can 
 grow on a limited area for the most part covered 
 with trees and shrubs, as in the Brazilian forests. 
 To effect this process of climbing various are 
 the methods. In 'stem-climbers/ such as the hop 
 or bindweed, the stem bows in all directions 
 until it has swept round some support. In 
 Clematis the leaf-stalks are highly sensitive to the 
 touch, and clasp any object they may meet. In 
 the vine the flowering branches sacrifice their 
 power of producing buds to become highly 
 sensitive tendrils. Again, in the Composites many 
 of the ' florets,' as in the cornflower, sacrifice 
 their 'essential organs' for the enlargement of 
 their corollas, probably in order to render them 
 more attractive to insects ; and so are better able 
 to secure 'the intercrossing of distinct flowers' 
 in order to avoid too close interbreeding. 
 
 It will probably be at once noticed that this 
 law is after all but a-general illustration of that 
 great principle of Nature already discussed, 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 2OO, 
 
 which may be called 'the continual effort of 
 beings to arrive at mutual and beneficial ad- 
 justments.' 
 
 Again, when we recognize, in the vegetal and 
 animal kingdoms alike, the seemingly universal 
 tendency to separate the sexes, we may ask why 
 do they ever both occur in the same flower or the 
 same animal? If this question has no other an- 
 swer than, such is the will of God, it is at least 
 satisfactorily accounted for by the theory of Evo- 
 lution of beings from the more generalized types 
 or grades to the more specialized : so that this 
 differentiation of the sexes is simply part of that 
 very process, hermaphroditism therefore repre- 
 senting the undifferentiated state, and wherever 
 it still exists, pointing to arrested conditions. 
 
 The second instance of Nature falling short 
 of that absolute degree of perfection, which 'we 
 can conceive possible, is to be found in the 
 conditions of the sphere of existence of all 
 organisms upon the earth. 
 
 This has been expressed in some such words 
 as the following: "Animals and plants do not 
 H. H 
 
210 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 live where circumstances may be best suited to 
 them, but where they can or where other animals 
 and plants will respectively let them live." 
 
 Hence, the intense struggle for existence, 
 which obtains everywhere in the constant attempt 
 at self-adjustment to external circumstances, 
 can never effect more than an inideal or relative 
 state of perfection. 
 
 Conditions of happiness or prosperity circulate 
 about an average or mean, but never attain any- 
 thing approximating to an absolute state of 
 perfect harmony for every day of a creature's 
 existence. 
 
 But a more important fact will be seen to 
 arise out of this: and that is, not merely does a 
 certain degree of unsatisfactoriness exist in the 
 conditions of life, but such an amount of derange- 
 ment may occur, as to be regarded in the light 
 of the so-called physical evils generally ; this 
 may otherwise be expressed by saying that there 
 is a continual process of an attempting to secure 
 a mutual adjustment between the three great 
 kingdoms of Nature, which is never absolutely 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 21 1 
 
 attained ; and as a concomitant effect of such 
 attempts, is the continual clashing of opposing 
 forces, so that while only a partially satisfactory 
 adjustment can be secured, it does not obtain 
 without much imperfection and often great 
 suffering. 
 
 Thus e.g. earthquakes, volcanos and deluges 
 are physical evils to which Man is subject, be- 
 cause he has appeared upon this earth before 
 the equilibrium of Nature's internal and external 
 forces has been secured. In other words, there 
 is a constantly prevailing want of adjustment, 
 or statical conditions, between those forces of 
 Nature which would secure to organic beings an 
 immunity from all chance of destruction. Simi- 
 larly with aerial phenomena; rain is necessary, 
 for animals and plants, yet the due supply ever 
 ranges round a mean. In some years there is 
 not enough for the crops : in others, they are ir- 
 retrievably damaged by excess. Again, the fact 
 that half the animal creation preys upon the 
 other half, is often regarded as an 'evil ' (whether 
 justly so is another question, and one to which 
 
212 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 the writer would unhesitatingly reply in the nega- 
 tive). So again, many diseases to which plants, 
 animals and Man are alike subject, are due to 
 abnormal combinations of the ultimate elements 
 of the beings attacked ; and arise out of a want 
 of a perfect system of combinations of those 
 ultimate elements, which would not admit of any 
 disturbance whatever, and which we can conceive 
 possible, but which is probably never secured; 
 for, to be absolutely perfect, our bodies should 
 not be liable to disease at all. 
 
 Now, in considering Man as part only of the 
 scheme of creation, it will be desirable to com- 
 pare the effect of physical evils upon animals 
 with that upon Man. We have no reason for 
 supposing animals to be conscious of any of 
 these things at all : nor do physical evils trouble 
 their minds. They are in no perplexity as to 
 their meaning. They live their life and die, 
 and there is an end of them. It is not so, how- 
 ever, with Man. He alone can reflect upon the 
 conditions of his existence ; and he finds from 
 the most impartial scrutiny of his surroundings 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 213 
 
 that they give rise to no higher conclusion than 
 that he is in the midst of a mixture of good and 
 evil, or a relative state of happiness ; and, as he 
 learns from Revelation, a state of probation or 
 trial, in order to test, to experience and to 
 qualify him for a future existence, without a 
 belief in which this world has ever seemed to 
 be dark and gloomy. 
 
 Reflecting therefore in this way, we find 
 Man's future state to be the sole interpretation 
 not only of his existence here, but, through him, 
 of all terrestrial creations as well ; and the proba- 
 tionary condition under which Man lives, while 
 on earth, is secured by that relatively perfect or 
 inideal state of things which universally obtains : 
 and lastly, that very inideality is essentially the 
 correlative result of the processes of develop- 
 ment and evolution. 
 
 Thus, then, do we see all life linked together : 
 and as far as we can see the wisdom of probation 
 as anticipatory of a future state of happiness, 
 so far do we recognize the wisdom of the plan 
 adopted and carried out by the Creator in 
 bringing about the changes of the world, animal 
 
 143 
 
214 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 >*/ 
 
 vegetal and mineral, which by their combined 
 
 efforts have evolved the present conditions of 
 things and rendered them fit for man's terrestrial 
 existence. 
 
 We do not forget that God could not only 
 have made Man at once fitted for heaven, but 
 have placed him there ; so that the wisdom of 
 development and the wisdom of probation are 
 alike synonymous with the will of God. They 
 are the necessary correlatives of that system of 
 progress which has a universal application in 
 every class of phenomena that admits of im- 
 provement or differentiation of any kind. 
 
 Indeed, we may go one step further and say, 
 that were this not the case heavenly conditions 
 could have no difference from earthly ones ; or 
 rather, as they might of course be different, that 
 under the present limitations of our existence 
 we cannot conceive of any method by which 
 heavenly conditions should be made contingent 
 upon earthly ones. So that, The whole scheme 
 which God has framed for Man's existence, from 
 the first that was created to all eternity, collapses 
 if the great law of Evolution be suppressed ! 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 Let us clearly understand, then, that it was 
 the Will of God that the environments and 
 conditions of life should be only relatively per- 
 fect in this world, and that the chance of physical 
 evils injuring or destroying beings endowed with 
 life appears to have been predetermined, is an 
 integral part of those conditions, and can never 
 be removed before the end of the world shall 
 come ! 
 
 Recognizing this, we will briefly trace the ef- 
 fects of physical evils upon creatures of successive 
 grades or types. In plants and the lower animals, 
 such as sponges, there is no consciousness of 
 pain, and therefore these evils are inappreciable. 
 With other animals, as we ascend from the lowest 
 to the highest, we find elements gradually differ- 
 entiated by which the creature can become con- 
 scious of pain, bodily at first only. But in the 
 higher animals fear and anxiety are superadded, 
 and we get the germ of mental anguish ; but as 
 yet no consciousness of what physical evils are. 
 As soon, however, as we step across the barrier 
 we find Man, not only subject to physical and 
 mental pain of every degree, but conscious of his 
 
2l6 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 surroundings being imperfect, able to reflect that 
 he has acquired a "knowledge of good and evil"; 
 and this new power makes him suffer mentally 
 by anticipating evils, and these expectations of 
 coming evil are often far more exquisite in their 
 mental torture than the actual endurance of the 
 evils themselves. 
 
 It is the existence of physical evil which has 
 ever perplexed the thoughtful man in all ages ; 
 and until the light of Revelation was thrown 
 upon this world's mysteries it is not to be 
 wondered at that the best antidote to misery 
 was expressed by " Let us eat, drink and be 
 merry, for to-morrow we die." But, it is just 
 because a future life is offered that we see why 
 "we live in jeopardy every hour": and why 
 that very yearning for a happier state, or at 
 least for rest, should be so strong and so deeply 
 seated in the human heart. 
 
 In drawing this Essay to a close, it will be 
 noticed by the reader that so much has been 
 said upon the relatively perfect or inideal con- 
 ditions as well as the physical evils of the world, 
 that he may almost imagine that the writer could 
 
E VOL UTION AND RELIGION. 2 1 / 
 
 not see any signs of the goodness and beneficence 
 of the Creator. This would be a false, not to add 
 an unjust, conclusion. The fact is that so little 
 has hitherto been said upon physical evils by 
 writers on Natural Theology, and so one-sided, 
 therefore, have been the general observations 
 about the wisdom and beneficence of God, that 
 the present writer deemed it desirable to bring 
 forward into greater prominence the recognition 
 of physical evils of the world as part, and a very 
 important part, of the scheme of Creation as 
 bearing upon the probationary condition of man. 
 That animals, as a whole, enjoy their ex- 
 istence cannot be doubted: it may be of a limited 
 character, but it is proportional to their powers 
 of enjoyment; it may be regulated by law, but 
 still their minds are not capable of any original 
 thought ; and so, there is no appreciation of the 
 limitations to which they are subject ; they seem 
 to have no fear unless an enemy approach them : 
 so that considering that it was solely the will 
 of God that they should exist at all, we may 
 safely say that He has showered upon them in 
 their wild state a condition of happiness, an en- 
 
2l8 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 joyment large in proportion to their relatively 
 perfect environing conditions. 
 
 When, however, we consider Man, our own 
 personal experience supplies us with a gauge 
 of the amount of happiness we enjoy. Suffice 
 it to say that both philosophy and religion teach 
 us that happiness is, to a very considerable 
 extent, left to our own powers. For, as has 
 been already remarked, just as external evils 
 are mainly subjective, i.e. they are evils or 
 not, according as we ourselves estimate them ; 
 so, where one man passes a life of "godliness 
 with contentment," another sees nothing but 
 troubles, difficulties and anxieties. This power 
 of acquiring happiness, even when surrounded 
 by difficulties, is an undoubted proof of bene- 
 ficence in God, Who so ordained that such 
 should be the enduring reward of faith in Him. 
 
 It may seem strange first to have permitted 
 if not created an 'evil/ and then to introduce 
 a 'good' act to counteract it: but, then, such 
 is the principle upon which God has ordered 
 this world, and is in fact part of that disciplinary 
 process which is the final cause of inideality. 
 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 219 
 
 No other words will better explain Man's 
 estate than " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God 
 and His righteousness, and all other things shall 
 be added unto you." For such is God's provi- 
 dence ; and although we cannot expect abso- 
 lutely perfect conditions in this world, nor does 
 a godly life necessarily ensure a worldly fortune, 
 yet we do practically find that if we endeavour 
 to live godly, righteously and soberly, we are 
 securing just those conditions which are most 
 likely to ensure such worldly prosperity as is 
 good for us. 
 
 God's providence is not to be questioned be- 
 cause a worldly fortune may not be ours. Our 
 conditions of happiness are not to be measured 
 by pounds, shillings and pence. 
 
 If there were no future life, there might be 
 some show of reason for setting high value 
 on temporal prosperity; but on the great prin- 
 ciple of future life being made contingent upon 
 our right use of a terrestrial state, no such 
 value ought to be assigned to any temporal con- 
 ditions of satisfaction whatever. 
 
 But in the midst of this disciplinary process, 
 
22O EVOLUTION AND RELIGION. 
 
 who, if he possess a particle of Faith, will deny 
 the beneficence in His providence, or the good- 
 ness of Him from Whom cometh all good and 
 perfect gifts ? Who in His love showers down His 
 rain upon the just and the unjust, Who, in His 
 infinite wisdom and goodness, has made the law 
 that the giver should find more satisfaction than 
 the recipient, and so prepared the heart for 
 charity, and ruled that the man who sacrifices 
 himself should know of His love ; that he who is 
 content with his lot believing all things to 
 work for the good of those who love Him finds 
 that rest and satisfaction in contentment to be 
 his which the restless and dissatisfied yearn after 
 and can never find ; yet is it already prepared 
 for them of God, and within reach of their very 
 grasp ! 
 
 Who, I ask, that has once 'tasted of the good- 
 ness of the Lord' will deny that He is a Father 
 of Love to his children, even though He try 
 them as by a fiery ordeal or suffer them to pass 
 through the furnace of affliction ? 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PR