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this theorist admits the necessity of external circumstances to develop these powers, and says nothing of any spontaneity in them. Now add the progressive to the Mulderian hypothesis, and the dead atoms are presently able to begin life saving the help of a very little miracle. And now the dust begins literally to crawl and grow. Parcels of ammoniacal, carbonic and other particles coalesce to make germs in every sea, and in every damp soil.

Is there, then, an individuality of species, or do they differ only in degree? If they differ in degree only, there seems to be no reason why a species should not go on improving by effect of mere warmth and nutriment; just as a tree grows, by favor of air and soil. But it seems more agreeable to observation, if we conclude that species are a something quite fixed and immutable; and that no growth of [one will improve it into another. A species may vary in size, and in other particulars, through wide limits. Compare, for instance, the lap dog with the Newfoundland; the garden rose with the wild kind; the cabbage with the cauliflower. But in these and all other cases, the difference is in degree, only. The internal specific form remains unchanged. There is no example of a change of one species into another. Dogs become wild dogs, but not wolves. Varieties that diverge far from the type, are usually feeble and perishable. Varieties of a species result from changes of temperature, food and habitat: as from hot to cold, from dry to moist, and the like. Mechanical causes can produce only mechanical effects; the causes of organic variation may, therefore, affect the organism mechanically, but cannot change it essentially. They may increase the bulk of cellular tissue, diminish the muscular power, and variously affect the quantities and activities of the parts; but they cannot add a new element to the animal; they cannot make it a new species.

But what do we mean by a new element, and a new species? What is the essence of a species-of the species man, for example? The "element" which distinguishes the body of a man from all other bodies, must be an organ of moral conception, the material eye of spirit. Spirit cannot act without a body, nor see without an eye, nor feel and perform without muscles, nerves and brain. The element of the material organ of thought

by which the spirit is able to govern and compel the right action of the body, throws expression into the face, grace into the motion, and, in fine, to perform all the proper functions of a man, and not of an animal; this organ, whatever we choose to name it, must be the specific mark of the human body. If the body of an ape ever comes to be the body of a human spirit, it must be by the addition of this Element. Whether high feeding, or a warm climate, is likely to plant this element in the bodies of apes, is a part of the question at issue. The other part is, whether there are certain rudiments of this organ in apes, or in animalcules, or even in dead matter. Or, lastly, whether creation proceeds by a miraculous superinduction of this moral quality upon the fœtus of an ape, causing its sudden transformation to a human shape.

To extend this inquiry of species to the inferior kinds-what is the specific "element" by which a dog may be known from a wolf? The answer is, docility, fineness of temper, quickness and force of affection. These qualities being by no means accidental, but proper to the whole species of dog, distinguished from the whole species of wolf, belong to it intrinsically, and appear in the whole conformation, and in every habit of the animal. Even the so-called wolf-dog is not wolfish in disposition. The brain, which is the least variable part of an animal, is for that reason the true mark of its species. The researches of Owen and other physiologists, show that the brain is the specific part of an animal. If the brains of two animals have precisely the same number and relation of parts, though they differ considerably in shape and size, like the brains of large and small dogs, the two animals will resemble each other, and are one species. A conclusion not mathematical but analogical; like all physiological conclusions.

If two birds, the two wood thrushes for example, though alike in most particulars, yet differ in habitat and song, it is a proof of a specific difference; in other words, of a difference of nervous and cerebral anatomy. Their brains will be found different; and this is the material mark of species to be looked for in them; other parts, the bills of birds, teeth and claws of quadrupeds, scales and jaws of fish, are but secondary marks to know species by; because they are no more than instruments for the service of the brain and nerves; these, in turn,

being organs of the Instinct and animal Soul.

Add to the brain of a crow an organ for the sense of sweet sound, and to this add the clear throat and physical power of a singer-a new species would at once appear. Every part of the body, for the sake of unity, would undergo changes, that all might be in harmony with the new organ. Every trace of crow, in color, contour, habits and size, would disappear, and a new species be created at a stroke; as in the birth of a human fœtus from an ape. That any law of progress in the organism itself could accomplish all this, is logically impossible; the whole force of an organic body ending in self-perpetuation and self-perfection. All the forces of an organic body unite in the production of a germ, the epitome of them all; and if the germ exceeds its parent, it is not by the possession of any new power, but by the greater perfection of the old. Thus are species perpetuated, and remain; because each of their powers is able only to impress its own, and no other quality upon the germ. As far as they have been compared, the germs of all species are peculiar and specifically marked from the first moment of their existence. As one species resembles and differs from another, so their embryos resemble and differ from each other. Nor does an inferior complete species ever more than superficially resemble the embryo or fœtus of a superior species; notwithstanding many analogies and seeming resemblances between the stages of fœtal life and the gradation of species. It is contrary to all science, to assert that a species of quadruped is, at any fætal stage, either an animalcule, a mollusk, or a fish; though, from the rudimental condition of the organs, it may resemble those forms, passing through a series of such resemblances. In the very germ of each species lie all the elements of its perfect form in their just proportions, else would it never reach maturity.

their operations, it shows us that the forces which compose matter originate in mathematical points, from which they act; some, like cohesion and elasticity, in a narrow sphere; others, like gravity and electricity, through the whole universe. And this is the characteristic of dead matter, that every motion of its least particles is felt throughout infinite space. The universe is, in this manner, made a whole, by electric, and other material presences, penetrating and embracing, exciting and balancing each other in the void of space. In the body of a plant or animal, these forces are all present—as chemistry and common sense can prove to us; but something more, also, is present: for the body of an animal is a world in itself, working continually to sustain and continue itself in its proper shape, subordinating the simpler laws of matter to the higher laws of its own unity. The result in plants is, the building up and continuance of a mere form, without motion or sensation. This form varies with the number and proportion of its elementary tissues, producing many species. The third step upward is into the region of nervous or animated matter; a something more than form, having a motion guided by sense and sensation, and a variety of intelligences, from dark instinct to clear understanding. By senses and perceptions animal bodies are connected with the outer world, and by powers of motion change their place in it as necessity impels. The forces of their life subordinate alike, the forces of dead matter, and those of organization: every action of an animal flowing from a relation between internal sensation and external sense, is connected and embodied with the whole, making the universe a " body" to itself. Thus we find that while the dead matter is a system of itself, and each organism a system within itself, the animal perception combines both systems; reuniting the isolated life with the Extended and the Enduring. The instrument of this reunion of the limited with the unlimited is the Nervous Matter, the most complex and wonderful of created things. A wave of remote ether, a ray of a twinkling star, the delicate pulses of air, the influences of gravity, electricity, elastic force, the forms and colors of all things, are impressed upon this tissue of tissues, this body of bodies, this thing of things; not only impressed and felt, but harmo*Annal de Science Naturelle-various papers on development.

Here, under our feet, are the forces of matter, heat, gravity, cohesion, impenetrability. The aggregate of these forces acting in their way, in rest or motion, we name the "inanimate" world, or the "material" world: Chemistry discovers all the conditions of these powers, and concludes upon their mode of distribution in the universe. Reasoning upon

nized with the internal condition of the body, and retained there as efficient images, working in memory.

The influences of the world thus flow in upon the organism. It responds to these influences; first, blindly and instinctively; then, intelligently; and last of all, rationally, under the guidance of a spirit. That power, whatever be its essence, which employs the body in mere offices of necessity, we name Instinct. Instinct in the bee, associates sun-light, the heat of summer, and the aroma of flowers, with the inner sensations of its body-resulting in the production of honey, wax, and the whole economy of the hive. Instinct must, therefore, be regarded as one of the great powers of the world, operating by strict laws in such bodies as were created for it. The species of inferior animals are stamped with its marks in their degrees.

Rising into the region of those intelligences, which may be named the rulers of instincts, we find the species of animals marked with the qualities of the passions and affections; with cunning, caution, and inventive foresight; with a mirthful fancy, a memory, and with something like an understanding.

As the powers of instinct moulded the bodies of the inferior classes to subserve their specific ends, whether of food, of reproduction, or of motion and habitat; so these superior energies mould a species fitted to their ends, propagating the races of intelligent animals. The powers of instinct served only to place the body in a direct relation with objects-a relation which ceased with the removal of the object. But intelligence has a foresight and remembrance-though limited to particulars and to individuals. The love, the memory, the passion, of an animal, though able to rule and subordinate its instincts, have no universality. They are seasonal, transient, periodical, and limited to individuals.

The third and last stage of organization, in the body of rational Man, subordinating instinct and intelligence, and putting the present existence of the body in a mysterious connection with a past and a future-this energy we name the organ of reason, the mark of "the species man ;" an image of the Eternal impressed upon the Transient; the Evidence of an Immortality; the material witness of an immaterial Spirit. Swayed by a spirit operating through this organ, Man's body is enabled to become the instrument of the Great Powers; the leges

legum, which we name Justice, Faith, Truth, and their attendants; by which the Supreme becomes apparent in nature, subordinating all things, all instincts, all intelligences-making Mind and Matter the mere exponents of His will.

Invested with such a property in matter, made ruler over passions and intelligences, Man governs his body with a sovereignty delegated from God. Reason, his State and Constitution, becomes his mark of kingship over the rabble of impulsive and passionate. Reason, then, is the harmony of Spirit with matter, through a human organism. The acts that flow from it, bear witness to its authority; for they regard not individuals, nor particular interests, but solely the immutable, Justice, Obedience and Love. To those who profess rationality, the "marks of the species Man will of course be clearly known, whether in action or in feature; and equally apparent will be those "marks of the animal," and of brute instinct, which it is the function of reason to subordinate. To recapitulate the argument on this question: whether by any saltus, or sudden periodical progress of types, inferior animals can become men; whether we find any "law" in dead matter which moulds it to become a body for instincts, or for intelligences, or for reason: or, whether the reverse is true, namely, that Creative power by a word originate each species, whether material or organic-causing them at once to be in their perfection, and sustaining them unchanged; whether the inferior may, by any " law," be made to originate the superior?

First, then, to this last inquiry. There is no authentic instance of the generation of an animal out of dead substances. The infusory animalcules are not produced in water when it is effectually protected from the air. The air is known to be a natural conveyer of the seeds of plants, the pollen of flowers, and the sporules of fungi; why not then of dry animalcular germs, or even of animalcules themselves? The vorticella, and other minute kinds, may be kept dry in sand for an indefinite period. In that condition they are a light dust, movable in every wind. If a marsh dries up in the sun, it must leave a fine "animalcular dust" upon the soil, to be taken up and transported by the least breath of air. If probability ever mounts to certainty, this is certain that the atmosphere is charged with animalcular dust, ready to be vivified with the touch of moisture.

Hence the sudden appearance of animalcules in drops of rain, in pools, in every exposed surface of water. Animals take these germs in with their breath. Particular kinds may operate as poisons, and become the cause of endemical and epidemical diseases-though this is but a weak conjecture. There is no part of the human body inaccessible to them. Even in blood animalcules are always present; though there is reason to believe that these and other parasites may be generated by the body itself-the inferior by the superior.

In the instance of intestinal worms, and particularly of cystoid animals found in diseased flesh, in the brain of sheep, and in the viscera of all animals, there is no clear objection against the hypothesis of their generation by a diseased action of the part. The superior may be easily admitted to produce the inferior; though we allow the converse to be impossible. The flesh of a highly organized animal is capable of producing in itself a germ of its own species, susceptible of vivification. Why should it not be able, in the diseased state, to originate obscure species, of the lowest grade? To admit that intestinal worms may be originated, male and female, in the diseased body of an insect or quadruped, is not to admit anything in favor of that hypothesis which creates animals out of dust by force of electricity; or which places latent in the germ of a monkey the moral element of a man.

Broadly, and without fear of contradiction, the naturalist may deny that any inferior species has been seen to ripen into one superior. There is no fact of this kind. There is guess, conjecture, enough; but no fact, not one. But what is to be thought of a hypothesis founded upon sheer vacuity-upon nothing?

That the order of creation began with the inferior animals, and rose through a scale of species, ending in man, must be a false opinion; for the lowest of all the parasitic tenants of the human body must have appeared last of all, even after the creation of that body. And so of the whole tribe of intestinal worms, animalcules of warm blood, and the great variety of parasitic kinds. The fish-louse came after the fish, the whale-barnacle after the whale. The fungi of dead wood are later, in a natural order, than the forest trees; and so of a multitude of others.

Creation does not appear to have happened in a simple order, but in a very com

plex, and sometimes an inverted one. As it now happens that plutonic rocks are found, in some few instances, above the secondary strata, in an order inverted, the same may have easily held true of animals; that some of a superior, would appear in their place before others of an inferior species. But if the order of nature is that of a progress, one species rising out of another, this could never happen.

The impossibility that one species should, of itself, originate another, will be easily conceded; and it becomes necessary to introduce a law without a fact to support it, a nisus in the species, or a special miracle working in the manner described. But that the Maker should have simply caused a species, willing its appearance in its place, seems no more miraculous than that he should have willed matter to exist, or that he should continue to will its existence, or choose to manifest his will by "laws," so called, of matter." If we consider what is meant by "a miracle," it seems to be a departure from the laws or order of matter; but the creation of matter itself is no departure from "laws of matter," nor is the creation of a perfect man—by the fiat of Deity-either in accordance with, nor yet a departure from, the laws of nature. It is wonderful, stupendous, ineffable, but not "miraculous."

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And so of all species. A very weak objection has been offered, as though creative power should not condescend to create vermin. They were made, then, by a law, lest the creative power be disgraced! But mere atoms of matter are clearly a less creditable work than a worm or a mushroom, which, if one looks fairly at them, are very elegant objects-beautifully and amazingly contrived. Looking upon man from a certain height of speculation, even he is but a kind of

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creeping thing;" and, in that sense, as much a disgrace to nature as any worm can be. He was created as he is, with all his members, some for honor and some for dishonor; but he is not ashamed of his Maker on that account.

A word in regard to the famous nebular hypothesis. We know, without aid of prophecy, that this hypothesis can never be established, unless by a message from the stars. Those nebulæ that appear as light clouds in the interstellar spaces, may possibly be composed of stars a fatal possibility.

Meanwhile a real difficulty lies before the whole notion of a visible nebulous

matter. The light of the sun, and all other spontaneous light, is known to proceed either from a solid or a liquid mass; or, rather, a solid or liquid mass is necessary to its existence. The sun must be either a solid or a liquid mass, though its light proceed from electric or other aura about its surface. Rarefied air, on the contrary, gives out little or no light. If nebulous matter be anything at all, it is mere gas. A nebula composed of such gases as are known upon the earth, would not give out the light of fixed stars, the light of suns, or of the milkyway. And if the nebular light is like the sun's light, we must think that there are solid bodies, solar spheres, to support it. And so the nebular dream vanishes into mere absurdity.

Meanwhile, though we reject the nebular hopothesis, nothing hinders a supposition of vast bodies of uncondensed gases, floating apart or gathered about incipient solar systems in the vast of space. Nor would the vortical theory of our world's creation have been rejected so rudely, founded as it is upon excellent proofs, if it had not come attended by a load of false conclusions, as of a foolish "fire mist," which is another word for "rarefied air." Of "a law" going on from the creation of worlds by vortices, to that of species by a law of progress;" of God's being disgraced by creating vermin; of men originating by slow degrees from monkeys, "a mode," indeed, to be ashamed of! with a crowd of like absurdities following, pel!-mell, at the heels of a nebular hypothesis, and ending like that in mere vapor.

Touching the reception of these books, the Vestiges and its Sequel, a cry of atheism has been very loud against them, as if it were a mark of atheism to reduce all things to "a law." Yes, that is the charge! As if none but a denier of God's Being would insist on the preservation of Order in God's Work, or insist that he produced all things out of matter. But our author goes free on that charge; for that is no denial of a cause, which seeks only the form and method of its working. That a charge of unbelief in the supernatural, and of a desire in general to shake off the whole idea of a supernatural, may not be made good against these books, seems not so sure; but to assert this even without a deliberate investigation would be unjust. A hatred of mystery, and of the inconceivable, goes along with a love of scientific specu

lation. The intellect is put through its purgation, and will be rid of the very shadow of a mystery. It will have all things traced back to their " beginnings," and never rests till, seemingly, it puts a girdle about the universe, a girdle of darkness. Here is a spirit quite different from the scepticism of true science, founded in a distrust of human intellect; a feeling of its inability to grasp the whole. The first kind is ever on a sea of speculation, sailing by some meteor light of a nisus, or factless law. The other, distrustful of all appearances, looks upon nature as a veil covering the face of God. Presuming not to penetrate his mystery, it is content with what is given to sense. The former mistakes fancy for reality, the symbol for the thing symbolized; the ideal for the real; and the nature in the thought for the nature in the sense. Nay, it puts a factitious dream, for the Eternal Person, converting the Maker into a mechanist, the producer of the substance, into an artificer with tools.

True science rather sports with ideas, or shapes them for certain uses, or for symbols, but will by no means fall down and worship its work. Both the true and the false invent theories; and we know that on their right invention and use hangs the whole progress of man: to know and use them must be the part of all who advance that progress; to feign and abuse them, of all who retard it. By the continuance of peace, and liberty of all opinion, the natural tendency to idealize and spiritualize has gained a leisure and a growth far exceeding any hope of antiquity. From a boundless curiosity heaping up mountains of information, we are come to a desire of using and assimilating what is gathered. The natural upward striving of the mind leaves us unsatisfied short of a perfect reconciliation with nature; that the ways of God may be vindicated in his work. wish to accord with the Harmonist, and be established with Fate. "Tis the most urgent desire of the soul; to know the reason of things, and their ends;- not those little secondary ends, as of a tongue for speech, and an eye for seeing, which are obvious, but of the subordination of matter to spirits, of the laws of nature to the laws of reason. By this desire though we fall, yet by this also we rise again; as by steps attaining divine knowledge: Or rather, by humility in search in attaining the sense of high

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