{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38097/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38097","id":"gutenberg_38097","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38097","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Science - Biology","Science"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAPHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS\n\nFROM THE WORKS OF T. H. HUXLEY\n\n\nSelected By Henrietta A. Huxley\n\n\n1908\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nAlthough a man by his works and personality shall have made his mark\nupon the age he lives in, yet when he has passed away and his influence\nwith him, the next generation, and still more the succeeding one, will\nknow little of this work, of his ideals and of the goal he strove to\nwin, although for the student his scientific work may always live.\n\nThomas Henry Huxley may come to be remembered by the public merely as\nthe man who held that we were descended from the ape, or as the apostle\nof Darwinism, or as the man who worsted Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford.\n\nTo prevent such limitation, and to afford more intimate and valuable\nreasons for remembrance of this man of science and lover of his\nfellow-men, I have gathered together passages, on widely differing\nthemes, from the nine volumes of his \"Essays,\" from his \"Scientific\nMemoirs\" and his \"Letters,\" to be published in a small volume, complete\nin itself and of a size that can be carried in the pocket.\n\nSome of the passages were picked out for their philosophy, some for\ntheir moral guidances, some for their scientific exposition of natural\nfacts, or for their insight into social questions; others for their\ncharms of imagination or genial humour, and many--not the least--for\ntheir pure beauty of lucid English writing.\n\nIn so much wealth of material it was difficult to restrict the\ngathering.\n\nMy great wish is that this small book, by the easy method of its\ncontents, may attract the attention of those persons who are yet\nunacquainted with my husband's writings; of the men and women of\nleisure, who, although they may have heard of the \"Essays,\" do not care\nto work their way through the nine volumes; of others who would like to\nread them, but who have either no time to do so or coin wherewith to buy\nthem. More especially do I hope that these selections may attract\nthe attention of the working man, whose cause my husband so ardently\nespoused, and to whom he was the first to reveal, by his free lectures,\nthe loveliness of Nature, the many rainbow-coloured rays of science, and\nto show forth to his listeners how all these glorious rays unite in the\none pure white light of holy truth.\n\nI am most grateful to our son Leonard Huxley for weeding out the\novergrowth of my extracts, for indexing the text of the book and seeing\nit through the press for me.\n\nHodeslea, Eastbourne, June 29th, 1907.\n\n\n\n\nAPHORISMS and REFLECTIONS\n\n\nI\n\nThere is no alleviation for the sufferings of mankind except veracity\nof thought and of action, and the resolute facing of the world as it is\nwhen the garment of make-believe by which pious hands have hidden its\nuglier features is stripped off.\n\n\nII\n\nNatural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas\nwhich can alone still spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge,\nin desiring to ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to\ndiscover those of conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality.\n\n\nIII\n\nThe improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge\nauthority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind\nfaith the one unpardonable sin.\n\n\nIV\n\nThe man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by\nfaith, but by verification.\n\n\nV\n\nNo delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make\nup for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life.\n\n\nVI\n\nNothing great in science has ever been done by men, whatever their\npowers, in whom the divine afflatus of the truth-seeker was wanting.\n\n\nVII\n\nIn science, as in art, and, as I believe, in every other sphere of human\nactivity, there may be wisdom in a multitude of counsellors, but it is\nonly in one or two of them.\n\n\nVIII\n\nNothing can be more incorrect than the assumption one sometimes meets\nwith, that physics has one method, chemistry another, and biology a\nthird.\n\n\nIX\n\nAnyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware\nthat those who refuse to go beyond fact, rarely get as far as fact; and\nanyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every\ngreat step therein has been made by the \"anticipation of Nature.\"\n\n\nX\n\nThere are three great products of our time.... One of these is that\ndoctrine concerning the constitution of matter which, for want of a\nbetter name, I will call \"molecular\"; the second is the doctrine of the\nconservation of energy; the third is the doctrine of evolution.\n\n\nXI\n\nM. Comte's philosophy, in practice, might be compendiously described as\nCatholicism _minus_ Christianity.\n\n\nXII\n\nFact I know; and Law I know; but what is this Necessity, save an empty\nshadow of my own mind's throwing?\n\n\nXIII\n\nWe live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain\nduty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner he can\ninfluence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was\nbefore he entered it.\n\n\nXIV\n\nThe man of science, who, forgetting the limits of philosophical inquiry,\nslides from these formulae and symbols into what is commonly understood\nby materialism, seems to me to place himself on a level with the\nmathematician, who should mistake the x's and y's with which he works\nhis problems for real entities--and with this further disadvantage, as\ncompared with the mathematician, that the blunders of the latter are of\nno practical consequence, while the errors of systematic materialism may\nparalyse the energies and destroy the beauty of a life.\n\n\nXV\n\nThere are some men who are counted great because they represent the\nactuality of their own age, and mirror it as it is. Such an one\nwas Voltaire, of whom it was epigrammatically said, \"he expressed\neverybody's thoughts better than anybody.\" But there are other men who\nattain greatness because they embody the potentiality of their own day\nand magically reflect the future. They express the thoughts which\nwill be everybody's two or three centuries after them. Such an one was\nDescartes.\n\n\nXVI\n\n\"Learn what is true, in order to do what is right.\" is the summing up\nof the whole duty of man, for all who are unable to satisfy their mental\nhunger with the east wind of authority.\n\n\nXVII\n\nWhen I say that Descartes consecrated doubt, you must remember that it\nwas that sort of doubt which Goethe has called \"the active scepticism,\nwhose whole aim is to conquer itself\"; and not that other sort which\nis born of flippancy and ignorance, and whose aim is only to perpetuate\nitself, as an excuse for idleness and indifference.\n\n\nXVIII\n\nWhat, then, is certain?.... Why, the fact that the thought, the present\nconsciousness, exists. Our thoughts may be delusive, but they cannot be\nfictitious. As thoughts, they are real and existent, and the cleverest\ndeceiver cannot make them otherwise.\n\n\nXIX\n\nThought is existence. More than that, so far as we are concerned,\nexistence is thought, all our conceptions of existence being some kind\nor other of thought.\n\n\nXX\n\nIt is enough for all the practical purposes of human existence if we\nfind that our trust in the representations of consciousness is\nverified by results; and that, by their help, we are enabled \"to walk\nsure-footedly in this life.\"\n\n\nXXI\n\nIt is because the body is a machine that education is possible.\nEducation is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial\norganisation upon the natural organisation of the body; so that\nacts, which at first required a conscious effort, eventually became\nunconscious and mechanical.\n\n\nXXII\n\nI protest that if some great Power would agree to make me always think\nwhat is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into\na sort of clock and wound up every morning before I got out of bed, I\nshould instantly close with the offer.\n\n\nXXIII\n\nThe only freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the freedom\nto do wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest terms to anyone who\nwill take it of me.\n\n\nXXIV\n\nWhatever evil voices may rage, Science, secure among the powers that are\neternal, will do her work and be blessed.\n\n\nXXV\n\nThere is assuredly no more effectual method of clearing up one's own\nmind on any subject than by talking it over, so to speak, with men of\nreal power and grasp, who have considered it from a totally different\npoint of view.\n\n\nXXVI\n\nThe parallax of time helps us to the true position of a conception, as\nthe parallax of space helps us to that of a star.\n\n\nXXVII\n\n[If animals are conscious automata with souls] the soul stands related\nto the body as the bell of a clock to the works, and consciousness\nanswers to the sound which the bell gives out when it is struck.\n\n\nXXVIII\n\nLogical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise\nmen.\n\n\nXXIX\n\nThe only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any\nhonest man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false.\n\n\nXXX\n\nOf all the senseless babble I have ever had occasion to read, the\ndemonstrations of these philosophers who undertake to tell us all about\nthe nature of God would be the worst, if they were not surpassed by\nthe still greater absurdities of the philosophers who try to prove that\nthere is no God.\n\n\nXXXI\n\nThat which is to be lamented, I fancy, is not that society should do its\nutmost to help capacity to ascend from the lower strata to the higher,\nbut that it has no machinery by which to facilitate the descent of\nincapacity from the higher strata to the lower.\n\n\nXXXII\n\nTime, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against\ntruth.\n\n\nXXXIII\n\nMisery is a match that never goes out.\n\n\nXXXIV\n\nGenius as an explosive power beats gunpowder hollow; and if knowledge,\nwhich should give that power guidance, is wanting, the chances are not\nsmall that the rocket will simply run amuck among friends and foes.\n\n\nXXXV\n\nThoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, and self-respect, are\nthe qualities which make a real gentleman, or lady, as distinguished\nfrom the veneered article which commonly goes by that name.\n\n\nXXXVI\n\nThe higher the state of civilisation, the more completely do the actions\nof one member of the social body influence all the rest, and the less\npossible is it for any one man to do a wrong thing without interfering,\nmore or less, with the freedom of all his fellow-citizens.\n\n\nXXXVII\n\nI take it that the good of mankind means the attainment, by every\nman, of all the happiness which he can enjoy without diminishing the\nhappiness of his fellow men.\n\n\nXXXVIII\n\nEducation promotes peace by teaching men the realities of life and the\nobligations which are involved in the very existence of society; it\npromotes intellectual development, not only by training the individual\nintellect, but by sifting out from the masses of ordinary or inferior\ncapacities, those who are competent to increase the general welfare\nby occupying higher positions; and, lastly, it promotes morality and\nrefinement, by teaching men to discipline themselves, and by leading\nthem to see that the highest, as it is the only permanent, content is\nto be attained, not by grovelling in the rank and steaming valleys\nof sense, but by continual striving towards those high peaks, where,\nresting in eternal calm, reason discerns the undefined but bright ideal\nof the highest Good--\"a cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night.\"\n\n\nXXXIX\n\nMissionaries, whether of philosophy or of religion, rarely make rapid\nway, unless their preachings fall in with the prepossessions of\nthe multitude of shallow thinkers, or can be made to serve as a\nstalking-horse for the promotion of the practical aims of the still\nlarger multitude, who do not profess to think much, but are quite\ncertain they want a great deal.\n\n\nXL\n\nProclaim human equality as loudly as you like, Witless will serve his\nbrother.\n\n\nXLI\n\nThere is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical\npolitics--none in which there is more need of good pilotage and of a\nsingle, unfaltering purpose when the waves rise high.\n\n\nXLII\n\nThe doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time,\nfree and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction.\n\n\nXLIII\n\nFor the welfare of society, as for that of individual men, it is surely\nessential that there should be a statute of limitations in respect of\nthe consequences of wrong-doing.\n\n\nXLIV\n\n\"Musst immer thun wie neu geboren\" is the best of all maxims for the\nguidance of the life of States, no less than of individuals.\n\n\nXLV\n\nThe population question is the real riddle of the sphinx, to which no\npolitical OEdipus has as yet found the answer. In view of the ravages of\nthe terrible monster, over-multiplication, all other riddles sink into\ninsignificance.\n\n\nXLVI\n\nThe \"Law of Nature\" is not a command to do, or to refrain from doing,\nanything. It contains, in reality, nothing but a statement of that which\na given being tends to do under the circumstances of its existence; and\nwhich, in the case of a living and sensitive being, it is necessitated\nto do if it is to escape certain kinds of disability, pain, and ultimate\ndissolution.\n\n\nXLVII\n\nProbably none of the political delusions which have sprung from the\n\"natural rights\" doctrine has been more mischievous than the assertion\nthat all men have a natural right to freedom, and that those who\nwillingly submit to any restriction of this freedom, beyond the point\ndetermined by the deductions of _a priori_ philosophers, deserve the\ntitle of slave. But to my mind, this delusion is incomprehensible except\nas the result of the error of confounding natural with moral rights.\n\n\nXLVIII\n\nThe very existence of society depends on the fact that every member of\nit tacitly admits that he is not the exclusive possessor of himself, and\nthat he admits the claim of the polity of which he forms a part, to act,\nto some extent, as his master.\n\n\nXLIX\n\nSurely there is a time to submit to guidance and a time to take one's\nown way at all hazards.\n\n\nL\n\nIndividualism, pushed to anarchy, in the family is as ill-founded\ntheoretically and as mischievous practically as it is in the State;\nwhile extreme regimentation is a certain means of either destroying\nself-reliance or of maddening to rebellion.\n\n\nLI\n\nA man in his development runs for a little while parallel with, though\nnever passing through, the form of the meanest worm, then travels for a\nspace beside the fish, then journeys along with the bird and the reptile\nfor his fellow travellers; and only at last, after a brief companionship\nwith the highest of the four-footed and four-handed world, rises into\nthe dignity of pure manhood.\n\n\nLII\n\nNot only does every animal live at the expense of some other animal or\nplant, but the very plants are at war.... The individuals of a species\nare like the crew of a foundered ship, and none but good swimmers have a\nchance of reaching the land.\n\n\nLIII\n\nWhen we know that living things are formed of the same elements as the\ninorganic world, that they act and react upon it, bound by a thousand\nties of natural piety, is it probable, nay is it possible, that they,\nand they alone, should have no order in their seeming disorder, no\nunity in their seeming multiplicity, should suffer no explanation by the\ndiscovery of some central and sublime law of mutual connection?\n\n\nLIV\n\nThe student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the\nmore conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial\nmiracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of\nadmiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its\nembryo.\n\n\nLV\n\nMatter and force are the two names of the one artist who fashions the\nliving as well as the lifeless.\n\n\nLVI\n\nThere is not throughout Nature a law of wider application than this,\nthat a body impelled by two forces takes the direction of their\nresultant.\n\n\nLVII\n\nOrthodoxy is the Bourbon of the world of thought. It learns not, neither\ncan it forget.\n\n\nLVIII\n\nWho shall number the patient and earnest seekers after truth, from the\ndays of Galileo until now, whose lives have been embittered and their\ngood name blasted by the mistaken zeal of Bibliolaters? Who shall count\nthe host of weaker men whose sense of truth has been destroyed in the\neffort to harmonise impossibilities--whose life has been wasted in the\nattempt to force the generous new wine of Science into the old bottles\nof Judaism, compelled by the outcry of the same strong party?\n\n\nLIX\n\nWhen Astronomy was young \"the morning stars sang together for joy,\" and\nthe planets were guided in their courses by celestial hands. Now, the\nharmony of the stars has resolved itself into gravitation according to\nthe inverse squares of the distances, and the orbits of the planets are\ndeducible from the laws of the forces which allow a schoolboy's stone to\nbreak a window.\n\n\nLX\n\nThe lightning was the angel of the Lord; but it has pleased Providence,\nin these modern times, that science should make it the humble messenger\nof man, and we know that every flash that shimmers about the horizon on\na summer's evening is determined by ascertainable conditions, and that\nits direction and brightness might, if our knowledge of these were great\nenough, have been calculated.\n\n\nLXI\n\nWhy should the souls [of philosophers] be deeply vexed? The majesty of\nFact is on their side, and the elemental forces of Nature are working\nfor them. Not a star comes to the meridian at its calculated time but\ntestifies to the justice of their methods--their beliefs are \"one\nwith the falling rain and with the growing corn.\" By doubt they are\nestablished, and open inquiry is their bosom friend.\n\n\nLXII\n\nHarmonious order governing eternally continuous progress--the web and\nwoof of matter and force interweaving by slow decrees, without a broken\nthread, that veil which lies between us and the Infinite--that universe\nwhich alone we know or can know; such is the picture which science draws\nof the world, and in proportion as any part of that picture is in unison\nwith the rest, so may we feel sure that it is rightly painted.\n\n\nLXIII\n\nMix salt and sand, and it shall puzzle the wisest of men, with his mere\nnatural appliances, to separate all the grains of sand from all the\ngrains of salt; but a shower of rain will effect the same object in ten\nminutes.\n\n\nLXIV\n\nElijah's great question, \"Will you serve God or Baal? Choose ye,\" is\nuttered audibly enough in the ears of every one of us as we come to\nmanhood. Let every man who tries to answer it seriously ask himself\nwhether he can be satisfied with the Baal of authority, and with all the\ngood things his worshippers are promised in this world and the next.\nIf he can, let him, if he be so inclined, amuse himself with such\nscientific implements as authority tells him are safe and will not cut\nhis fingers; but let him not imagine he is, or can be, both a true son\nof the Church and a loyal soldier of science.\n\n\nLXV\n\nEcclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to truth.\n\n\nLXVI\n\nIf the blind acceptance of authority appears to him in its true colours,\nas mere private judgment _in excelsis_ and if he have the courage to\nstand alone, face to face with the abyss of the eternal and unknowable,\nlet him be content, once for all, not only to renounce the good things\npromised by \"Infallibility,\" but even to bear the bad things which it\nprophesies; content to follow reason and fact in singleness and honesty\nof purpose, wherever they may lead, in the sure faith that a hell of\nhonest men will, to him, be more endurable than a paradise full of\nangelic shams.\n\n\nLXVII\n\nHistory warns us that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as\nheresies and to end as superstitions.\n\n\nLXVIII\n\nThe struggle for existence holds as much in the intellectual as in the\nphysical world. A theory is a species of thinking, and its right to\nexist is coextensive with its power of resisting extinction by its\nrivals.\n\n\nLXIX\n\nThe scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and\nirrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.\n\n\nLXX\n\nEvery belief is the product of two factors: the first is the state of\nthe mind to which the evidence in favour of that belief is presented;\nand the second is the logical cogency of the evidence itself.\n\n\nLXXI\n\nScience commits suicide when it adopts a creed.\n\n\nLXXII\n\nThe method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of\nthe necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode\nin which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and exact.\n\n\nLXXIII\n\nThere are men (and I think Priestley was one of them) to whom the\nsatisfaction of throwing down a triumphant fallacy is as great as that\nwhich attends the discovery of a new truth; who feel better satisfied\nwith the government of the world, when they have been helping Providence\nby knocking an imposture on the head; and who care even more for freedom\nof thought than for mere advance of knowledge. These men are the Carnots\nwho organise victory for truth, and they are, at least, as important as\nthe generals who visibly fight her battles in the field.\n\n\nLXXIV\n\nMaterial advancement has its share in moral and intellectual progress.\nBecky Sharp's acute remark that it is not difficult to be virtuous on\nten thousand a year, has its application to nations; and it is futile\nto expect a hungry and squalid population to be anything but violent and\ngross.\n\n\nLXXV\n\nIf the twentieth century is to be better than the nineteenth, it will\nbe because there are among us men who walk in Priestley's footsteps. But\nwhether Priestley's lot be theirs, and a future generation, in justice\nand in gratitude, set up their statues; or whether their names and fame\nare blotted out from remembrance, their work will live as long as time\nendures. To all eternity, the sum of truth and right will have been\nincreased by their means; to all eternity, falsehood and injustice will\nbe the weaker because they have lived.\n\n\nLXXVI\n\nScience is, I believe, nothing but _trained and organised common sense_,\ndiffering from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw\nrecruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only so\nfar as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a\nsavage wields his club.\n\n\nLXXVII\n\nThe vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical faculties,\nby no mental processes, other than those which are practised by every\none of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A detective\npoliceman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his shoe, by a\nmental process identical with that by which Cuvier restored the extinct\nanimals of Montmartre from fragments of their bones.\n\n\nLXXVIII\n\nThere is no side of the human mind which physiological study leaves\nuncultivated. Connected by innumerable ties with abstract science,\nPhysiology is yet in the most intimate relation with humanity; and by\nteaching us that law and order, and a definite scheme of development,\nregulate even the strangest and wildest manifestations of individual\nlife, she prepares the student to look for a coal even amidst the\nerratic wanderings of mankind, and to believe that history offers\nsomething more than an entertaining chaos--a journal of a toilsome,\ntragi-comic march nowhither.\n\n\nLXXIX\n\nI cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and\nevil inseparably woven up in the life of the very worms, will bear his\nown share with more courage and submission; and will, at any rate, view\nwith suspicion those weakly amiable theories of the Divine government,\nwhich would have us believe pain to be an oversight and a mistake,--to\nbe corrected by and by. On the other hand, the predominance of happiness\namong living things--their lavish beauty--the secret and wonderful\nharmony which pervades them all, from the highest to the lowest, are\nequally striking refutations of that modern Manichean doctrine, which\nexhibits the world as a slave-mill, worked with many tears, for mere\nutilitarian ends.\n\n\nLXXX\n\nTo a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side\nstroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art,\nnine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach him\nsomething of natural history, and you place in his hands a catalogue of\nthose which are worth turning round. Surely our innocent pleasures are\nnot so abundant in this life that we can afford to despise this or any\nother source of them. We should fear being banished for our neglect to\nthat limbo where the great Florentine tells us are those who, during\nthis life, \"wept when they might be joyful.\"\n\n\nLXXXI\n\nNo slavery can be abolished without a double emancipation, and the\nmaster will benefit by freedom more than the freed-man.\n\n\nLXXXII\n\nCompare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it may\nbe doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in point of\nignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that the ignorance is\nof a different sort--that the class feeling is in favour of a different\nclass--and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of wrong-headedness\nin each case--but it is questionable if the one is either a bit better,\nor a bit worse, than the other. The old protectionist theory is the\ndoctrine of trades unions as applied by the squires, and the modern\ntrades unionism is the doctrine of the squires applied by the artisans.\nWhy should we be worse off under one _regime_ than under the other?\n\n\nLXXXIII\n\nThe life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more\nor less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our\nknowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and\ncomplicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold\nages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game\nof his or her own. The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the\nphenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the\nlaws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know\nthat his play is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our\ncost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance\nfor ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid,\nwith that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows\ndelight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated--without haste,\nbut without remorse.\n\n\nLXXXIV\n\nEducation is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature,\nunder which name I include not merely things and their forces, but men\nand then-ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into\nan earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws.\n\n\nLXXXV\n\nTo every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. And\nthen, long before we were susceptible of any other mode of instruction,\nNature took us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its\neducational influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with\nNature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross\ndisobedience. Nor should I speak of this process of education as past\nfor any one, be he as old as he may. For every man the world is as fresh\nas it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who\nhas the eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her patient\neducation of us in that great university, the universe, of which we are\nall members--Nature having no Test-Acts.\n\n\nLXXXVI\n\nThose who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws which\ngovern men and things and obey them, are the really great and successful\nmen in this world. The great mass of mankind are the \"Poll,\" who pick up\njust enough to get through without much discredit Those who won't learn\nat all are plucked; and then you can't come up again. Nature's pluck\nmeans extermination.\n\n\nLXXXVII\n\nIgnorance is visited as sharply as wilful disobedience--incapacity meets\nwith the same punishment as crime. Nature's discipline is not even a\nword and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. It\nis left to you to find out why your ears are boxed.\n\n\nLXXXVIII\n\nAll artificial education ought to be an anticipation of natural\neducation.\n\n\nLXXXIX\n\nThat man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained\nin youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with\nease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of;\nwhose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of\nequal strength and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine,\nto be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as\nforce the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge\nof the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her\noperations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire,\nbut whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the\nservant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty,\nwhether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others\nas himself.\n\n\nXC\n\nThe only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of\nmankind, is wisdom.\n\n\nXCI\n\nNext to being right in this world, the best of all things is to be\nclearly and definitely wrong, because you will come out somewhere. If\nyou go buzzing about between right and wrong, vibrating and fluctuating,\nyou come out nowhere; but if you are absolutely and thoroughly and\npersistently wrong, you must, some of these days, have the extreme good\nfortune of knocking your head against a fact, and that sets you all\nstraight again.\n\n\nXCII\n\nNo man ever understands Shakespeare until he is old, though the youngest\nmay admire him, the reason being that he satisfies the artistic instinct\nof the youngest and harmonises with the ripest and richest experience of\nthe oldest.\n\n\nXCIII\n\nIt is not a question whether one order of study or another should\npredominate. It is a question of what topics of education you shall\nselect which will combine all the needful elements in such due\nproportion as to give the greatest amount of food, support, and\nencouragement to those faculties which enable us to appreciate truth,\nand to profit by those sources of innocent happiness which are open to\nus, and, at the same time, to avoid that which is bad, and coarse, and\nugly, and keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls and dangers which\nbeset those who break through the natural or moral laws.\n\n\nXCIV\n\nWriting is a form of drawing; therefore if you five the same attention\nand trouble to drawing as you do to writing, depend upon it, there is\nnobody who cannot be made to draw, more or less well.... I do not say\nfor one moment you would make an artistic draughtsman. Artists are not\nmade; they grow..... You can teach simple drawing, and you will find it\nan implement of learning of extreme value. I do not think its value can\nbe exaggerated, because it gives you the means of training the young in\nattention and accuracy, which are the two things in which all mankind\nare more deficient than in any other mental quality whatever.\n\n\nXCV\n\nIf a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out of his\nBible, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes, and Bishop\nBerkeley, to mention only a few of our illustrious writers--I say, if\nhe cannot get it out of those writers, he cannot get it out of anything;\nand I would assuredly devote a very large portion of the time of every\nEnglish child to the careful study of the models of English writing of\nsuch varied and wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is still more\nimportant and still more neglected, the habit of using that language\nwith precision, with force, and with art.\n\n\nXCVI\n\nI fancy we are almost the only nation in the world who seem to think\nthat composition comes by nature. The French attend to their own\nlanguage, the Germans study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think\nit is worth their while.\n\n\nXCVII\n\nMany of the faults and mistakes of the ancient philosophers are\ntraceable to the fact that they knew no language but their own, and were\noften led into confusing the symbol with the thought which it embodied.\n\n\nXCVIII\n\nIf the time given to education permits, add Latin and German. Latin,\nbecause it is the key to nearly one-half of English and to all the\nRomance languages; and German, because it is the key to almost all the\nremainder of English, and helps you to understand a race from whom\nmost of us have sprung, and who have a character and a literature of\na fateful force in the history of the world, such as probably has been\nallotted to those of no other people, except the Jews, the Greeks, and\nourselves.\n\n\nXCIX\n\nIn an ideal University,.... the force of living example should fire the\nstudent with a noble ambition to emulate the learning of learned\nmen, and to follow in the footsteps of the explorers of new fields of\nknowledge. And the very air he breathes should be charged with that\nenthusiasm for truth, that fanaticism of veracity, which is a greater\npossession than much learning; a nobler gift than the power of\nincreasing knowledge; by go much greater and nobler than these, as the\nmoral nature of man is greater than the intellectual; for veracity is\nthe heart of morality. Do what you can to do what you ought, and leave\nhoping and fearing alone.\n\n\nCI\n\nOn the face of the matter, it is absurd to ask whether it is more\nimportant to know the limits of one's powers; or the ends for which they\nought to be exerted; or the conditions under which they must be exerted.\nOne may as well inquire which of the terms of a Rule of Three sum one\nought to know in order to get a trustworthy result. Practical life\nis such a sum, in which your duty multiplied into your capacity,\nand divided by your circumstances, gives you the fourth term in the\nproportion, which is your deserts, with great accuracy.\n\n\nCII\n\nBooks are the money of Literature, but only the counters of Science.\n\n\nCIII\n\nMedicine was the foster-mother of Chemistry, because it has to do\nwith the preparation of drugs and the detection of poisons; of Botany,\nbecause it enabled the physician to recognise medicinal herbs; of\nComparative Anatomy and Physiology, because the man who studied Human\nAnatomy and Physiology for purely medical purposes was led to extend his\nstudies to the rest of the animal world.\n\n\nCIV\n\nA thorough study of Human Physiology is, in itself, an education broader\nand more comprehensive than much that passes under that name. There is\nno side of the intellect which it does not call into play, no region\nof human knowledge into which either its roots, or its branches, do not\nextend; like the Atlantic between the Old and the New Worlds, its waves\nwash the shores of the two worlds of matter and of mind; its tributary\nstreams flow from both; through its waters, as yet unfurrowed by the\nkeel of any Columbus, lies the road, if such there be, from the one to\nthe other; far away from that North-west Passage of mere speculation, in\nwhich so many brave souls have been hopelessly frozen up.\n\n\nCV\n\nYou know that among the Bees, it depends on the kind of cell in which\nthe egg is deposited, and the quantity and quality of food which is\nsupplied to the grub, whether it shall turn out a busy little worker\nor a big idle queen. And, in the human hive, the cells of the endowed\nlarvae are always tending to enlarge, and their food to improve, until\nwe get queens, beautiful to behold, but which gather no honey and build\nno comb.\n\n\nCVI\n\nExamination, like fire, is a good servant, but a bad master; and there\nseems to me to be some danger of its becoming our master. I by no means\nstand alone in this opinion. Experienced friends of mine do not hesitate\nto say that students whose career they watch appear to them to become\ndeteriorated by the constant effort to pass this or that examination,\njust as we hear of mens brains becoming affected by the daily necessity\nof catching a train. They work to pass, not to know; and outraged\nScience takes Her revenge. They do pass, and they don't know.\n\n\nCVII\n\nA man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes.\n\n\nCVIII\n\nThere is but one right, and the possibilities of wrong are infinite.\n\n\nCIX\n\nIt is given to few to add to the store of knowledge, to strike new\nsprings of thought, or to shape new forms of beauty. But so sure as\nit is that men live not by bread, but by ideas, so sure is it that the\nfuture of the world lies in the hands of those who are able to carry the\ninterpretation of nature a step further than their predecessors.\n\n\nCX\n\nSize is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation.\n\n\nCXI\n\nWhatever practical people may say, this world is, after all, absolutely\ngoverned by ideas, and very often by the wildest and most hypothetical\nideas. It is a matter of the very greatest importance that our theories\nof things, and even of things that seem a long way apart from our daily\nlives, should be as far as possible true, and as far as possible removed\nfrom error.\n\n\nCXII\n\nAll truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified.\n\n\nCXIII\n\nYou may read any quantity of books, and you may be almost as ignorant as\nyou were at starting, if you don't have, at the back of your minds, the\nchange for words in definite images which can only be acquired through\nthe operation of your observing faculties on the phenomena of nature.\n\n\nCXIV\n\nThe saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is to my mind, a\nvery dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not believe\nthat it is other than a very valuable possession, however infinitesimal\nits quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is dangerous, where\nis the man who has so much as to be out of danger?\n\n\nCXV\n\nPatience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight\nof cleverness.\n\n\nCXVI\n\nThe body is a machine of the nature of an army..... Of this army each\ncell is a soldier, an organ a brigade, the central nervous system\nheadquarters and field telegraph, the alimentary and circulatory system\nthe commissariat Losses are made good by recruits born in camp, and\nthe life of the individual is a campaign, conducted successfully for a\nnumber of years, but with certain defeat in the long run.\n\n\nCXVII\n\nSo far as the laws of conduct are determined by the intellect, I\napprehend that they belong to science, and to that part of science which\nis called morality. But the engagement of the affections in favour of\nthat particular kind of conduct which we call good, seems to me to be\nsomething quite beyond mere science. And I cannot but think that it,\ntogether with the awe and reverence, which have no kinship with base\nfear, but arise whenever one tries to pierce below the surface of\nthings, whether they be material or spiritual, constitutes all that has\nany unchangeable reality in religion.\n\n\nCXVIII\n\nJust as I think it would be a mistake to confound the science,\nmorality, with the affection, religion; so do I conceive it to be a\nmost lamentable and mischievous error, that the science, theology, is so\nconfounded in the minds of many--indeed, I might say, of the majority of\nmen.\n\n\nCXIX\n\nMy belief is, that no human being, and no society composed of human\nbeings, ever did, or ever will, come to much, unless their conduct was\ngoverned and guided by the love of some ethical ideal.\n\n\nCXX\n\nPerhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make\nyourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether\nyou like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned;\nand, however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last\nlesson that he learns thoroughly.\n\n\nCXXI\n\nThe great end of life is not knowledge, but action. What men need is,\nas much knowledge as they can assimilate and organise into a basis for\naction; give them more and it may become injurious. One knows people\nwho are as heavy and stupid from undigested learning as others are from\nover-fulness of meat and drink.\n\n\nCXXII\n\nThere is no mode of exercising the faculty of observation and the\nfaculty of accurate reproduction of that which is observed, no\ndiscipline which so readily tests error in these matters, as drawing\nproperly taught And by that I do not mean artistic drawing; I mean\nfiguring natural objects. I do not wish to exaggerate, but I declare\nto you that, in my judgment, the child who has been taught to make an\naccurate elevation, plan and section of a pint pot has had an admirable\ntraining in accuracy of eye and hand.\n\n\nCXXIII\n\nAccuracy is the foundation of everything else.\n\n\nCXXIV\n\nAnybody who knows his business in science can make anything subservient\nto that purpose. You know it was said of Dean Swift that he could\nwrite an admirable poem upon a broomstick, and the man who has a\nreal knowledge of science can make the commonest object in the world\nsubservient to an introduction to the principles and greater truths of\nnatural knowledge.\n\n\nCXXV\n\nMy experience of the world is that things left to themselves don't get\nright.\n\n\nCXXVI\n\nI remember somewhere reading of an interview between the poet Southey\nand a good Quaker. Southey was a man of marvellous powers of work. He\nhad a habit of dividing his time into little parts each of which was\nfilled up, and he told the Quaker what he did in this hour and that, and\nso on through the day until far into the night The Quaker listened, and\nat the close said, \"Well, but, friend Southey, when dost thee think?\"\n\n\nCXXVII\n\nThe knowledge which is absolutely requisite in dealing with young\nchildren is the knowledge you possess, as you would know your own\nbusiness, and which you can just turn about as if you were explaining to\na boy a matter of everyday life.\n\n\nCXXVIII\n\nYou may develop the intellectual side of people as far as you like, and\nyou may confer upon them all the skill that training and instruction\ncan give; but, if there is not, underneath all that outside form and\nsuperficial polish, the firm fibre of healthy manhood and earnest desire\nto do well, your labour is absolutely in vain.\n\n\nCXXIX\n\nOur sole chance of succeeding in a competition, which must constantly\nbecome more and more severe, is that our people shall not only have the\nknowledge and the skill which are required, but that they shall have the\nwill and the energy and the honesty, without which neither knowledge nor\nskill can be of any permanent avail.\n\n\nCXXX\n\nIt is a great many years since, at the outset of my career, I had to\nthink seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to\nthe conclusion that the chief good, for me, was freedom to learn, think,\nand say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction,\nand have availed myself of the \"rara temporum felicitas ubi sentire quae\nvelis, et quae sentias dicere licet,\" which is now enjoyable, to the\nbest of my ability; and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned\nthat I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the\nresults of the line of action I have adopted.\n\n\nCXXXI\n\nThe scientific imagination always restrains itself within the limits of\nprobability.\n\n\nCXXXII\n\nIt is a \"law of nature,\" verifiable by everyday experience, that our\nalready formed convictions, our strong desires, our intent occupation\nwith particular ideas, modify our mental operations to a most marvellous\nextent, and produce enduring changes in the direction and in the\nintensity of our intellectual and moral activities.\n\n\nCXXXIII\n\nMen can intoxicate themselves with ideas as effectually as with\nalcohol or with bang, and produce, by dint of intense thinking, mental\nconditions hardly distinguishable from monomania.\n\n\nCXXXIV\n\nDemoniac possession is mythical; but the faculty of being possessed,\nmore or less completely, by an idea is probably the fundamental\ncondition of what is called genius, whether it show itself in the saint,\nthe artist, or the man of science. One calls it faith, another calls it\ninspiration, a third calls it insight; but the \"intending of the mind,\"\nto borrow Newton's well-known phrase, the concentration of all the rays\nof intellectual energy on some one point, until it glows and colours the\nwhole cast of thought with its peculiar light, is common to all.\n\n\nCXXXV\n\nWhatever happens, science may bide her time in patience and in\nconfidence.\n\n\nCXXXVI\n\nThe only people, scientific or other, who never make mistakes are those\nwho do nothing.\n\n\nCXXXVII\n\nThe most considerable difference I note among men is not in their\nreadiness to fall into error, but in their readiness to acknowledge\nthese inevitable lapses.\n\n\nCXXXVIII\n\nQuite apart from deliberate and conscious fraud (which is a rarer thing\nthan is often supposed), people whose mythopaeic faculty is once stirred\nare capable of saving the thing that is not, and of acting as they\nshould not, to an extent which is hardly imaginable by persons who are\nnot so easily affected by the contagion of blind faith. There is no\nfalsify so gross that honest men and, still more, virtuous women,\nanxious to promote a good cause, will not lend themselves to it without\nany clear consciousness of the moral bearings of what they are doing.\n\n\nCXXXIX\n\nThis modern reproduction of the ancient prophet, with his \"Thus saith\nthe Lord,\" \"This is the work of the Lord,\" steeped in supernaturalism\nand glorying in blind faith, is the mental antipodes of the philosopher,\nfounded in naturalism and a fanatic for evidence, to whom these\naffirmations inevitably suggest the previous question: \"How do you know\nthat the Lord saith it?\" \"How do you know that the Lord doeth it?\" and\nwho is compelled to demand that rational ground for belief, without\nwhich, to the man of science, assent is merely an immoral pretence.\n\nAnd it is this rational ground of belief which the writers of the\nGospels, no less than Paul, and Eginhard, and Fox, so little dream\nof offering that they would regard the demand for it as a kind of\nblasphemy.\n\n\nCXL\n\nTo quarrel with the uncertainty that besets us in intellectual affairs\nwould be about as reasonable as to object to live one's life, with due\nthought for the morrow, because no man can be sure he will be alive an\nhour hence.\n\n\nCXLI\n\nI verily believe that the great good which has been effected in the\nworld by Christianity has been largely counteracted by the pestilent\ndoctrine on which all the Churches have insisted, that honest disbelief\nin their more or less astonishing creeds is a moral offence, indeed\na sin of the deepest dye, deserving and involving the same future\nretribution as murder and robbery. If we could only see in one view,\nthe torrents of hypocrisy and cruelty, the lies, the slaughter, the\nviolations of every obligation of humanity, which have flowed from this\nsource along the course of the history of Christian nations, our worst\nimaginations of Hell would pale beside the vision.\n\n\nCXLII\n\nAgnostioism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence of which\nlies in the rigorous application of a single principle. That principle\nis of great antiquity; it is as old as Socrates; as old as the writer\nwho said, \"Try all things, hold fast by that which is good\"; it is the\nfoundation of the Reformation, which simply illustrated the axiom that\nevery man should be able to give a reason for the faith that is in him;\nit is the great principle of Descartes; it is the fundamental axiom of\nmodern science. Positively the principle may be expressed: In matters\nof the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without\nregard to any other consideration. And negatively: In matters of the\nintellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not\ndemonstrated or demonstrable. That I take to be the agnostic faith,\nwhich if a man keep whole and undefiled, he shall not be ashamed to look\nthe universe in the face, whatever the future may have in store for him.\n\n\nCXLIII\n\nThe best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest\nblunders and commit the fewest sins.\n\n\nCXLIV\n\nThat one should rejoice in the good man, forgive the bad man, and pity\nand help all men to the best of one's ability, is surely indisputable.\nIt is the glory of Judaism and of Christianity to have proclaimed this\ntruth, through all their aberrations. But the worship of a God who needs\nforgiveness and help, and deserves pity every hour of his existence,\nis no better than that of any other voluntarily selected fetish. The\nEmperor Julian's project was hopeful in comparison with the prospects of\nthe Comtist Anthropolatry.\n\n\nCXLV\n\nThe Cleric asserts that it is morally wrong not to believe certain\npropositions, whatever the results of a strict scientific investigation\nof the evidence of these propositions. He tells us \"that religious error\nis, in itself, of an immoral nature.\" He declares that he has prejudged\ncertain conclusions, and looks upon those who show cause for arrest of\njudgment as emissaries of Satan. It necessarily follows that, for him,\nthe attainment of faith, not the ascertainment of truth, is the highest\naim of mental life. And, on careful analysis of the nature of this\nfaith, it will too often be found to be, not the mystic process of unity\nwith the Divine, understood by the religious enthusiast; but that\nwhich the candid simplicity of a Sunday scholar once defined it to be.\n\"Faith,\" said this unconscious plagiarist of Tertullian, \"is the power\nof saying you believe things which are incredible.\"\n\n\nCXLVI\n\nThe science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social\ntheories, of the modern world have grown out of those of Greece and\nRome--not by favour of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings\nof early Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation\nwith the things of this world, were alike despicable.\n\n\nCXLVII\n\nAll that is best in the ethics of the modern world, in so far as it\nhas not Grown out of Greek thought, or Barbarian manhood, is the\ndirect development of the ethics of old Israel. There is no code of\nlegislation, ancient or modern, at once so just and so merciful, so\ntender to the weak and poor, as the Jewish law; and, if the Gospels are\nto be trusted, Jesus of Nazareth himself declared that he taught nothing\nbut that which lay implicitly, or explicitly, in the religious and\nethical system of his people.\n\n\nCXLVIII\n\nThe first-recorded judicial murder of a scientific thinker was compassed\nand effected, not by a despot, nor by priests, but was brought about by\neloquent demagogues, to whom, of all men, thorough search-ings of the\nintellect are most dangerous and therefore most hateful.\n\n\nCXLIX\n\nPlatonic philosophy is probably the grandest example of the unscientific\nuse of the imagination extant; and it would be hard to estimate the\namount of detriment to clear thinking effected, directly and indirectly,\nby the theory of ideas, on the one hand, and by the unfortunate doctrine\nof the baseness of matter, on the other.\n\n\nCL\n\nThe development of exact natural knowledge in all its vast range, from\nphysics to history and criticism, is the consequence of the working out,\nin this province, of the resolution to \"take nothing for truth without\nclear knowledge that it is such\"; to consider all beliefs open to\ncriticism; to regard the value of authority as neither greater nor less\nthan as much as it can prove itself to be worth. The modern spirit is\nnot the spirit \"which always denies,\" delighting only in destruction;\nstill less is it that which builds castles in the air rather than not\nconstruct; it is that spirit which works and will work \"without haste\nand without rest,\" gathering harvest after harvest of truth into its\nbarns and devouring error with unquenchable fire.\n\n\nCLI\n\nIn truth, the laboratory is the fore-court of the temple of philosophy;\nand whoso has not offered sacrifices and undergone purification there\nhas little chance of admission into the sanctuary.\n\n\nCLII\n\nThe memorable service rendered to the cause of sound thinking by\nDescartes consisted in this: that he laid the foundation of modern\nphilosophical criticism by his inquiry into the nature of certainty.\n\n\nCLIII\n\nThere is no question in the mind of anyone acquainted with the facts\nthat, so far as observation and experiment can take us, the structure\nand the functions of the nervous system are fundamentally the same in an\nape, or in a dog, and in a man. And the suggestion that we must stop at\nthe exact point at which direct proof fails us, and refuse to believe\nthat the similarity which extends so far stretches yet further, is no\nbetter than a quibble. Robinson Crusoe did not feel bound to conclude,\nfrom the single human footprint which he saw in the sand, that the maker\nof the impression had only one leg.\n\n\nCLIV\n\nDescartes, as we have seen, illustrates what he means by an innate\nidea, by the analogy of hereditary diseases or hereditary mental\npeculiarities, such as generosity. On the other hand, hereditary mental\ntendencies may justly be termed instincts; and still more appropriately\nmight those special proclivities, which constitute what we call genus,\ncome into the same category.\n\n\nCLV\n\nThe child who is impelled to draw as soon as it can hold a pencil; the\nMozart who breaks out into music as early; the boy Bidder who worked out\nthe most complicated sums without learning arithmetic; the boy Pascal\nwho evolved Euclid out of his own consciousness: all these may be said\nto have been impelled by instinct, as much as are the beaver and\nthe bee. And the man of genius is distinct in kind from the man of\ncleverness, by reason of the working within him of strong innate\ntendencies--which cultivation may improve, but which it can no more\ncreate than horticulture can make thistles bear figs. The analogy\nbetween a musical instrument and the mind holds good here also. Art and\nindustry may get much music, of a sort, out of a penny whistle; but,\nwhen all is done, it has no chance against an organ. The innate musical\npotentialities of the two are infinitely different.\n\n\nCLVI\n\nIt is notorious that, to the unthinking mass of mankind, nine-tenths of\nthe facts of fife do not suggest the relation of cause and effect; and\nthey practically deny the existence of any such relation by attributing\nthem to chance. Few gamblers but would stare if they were told that\nthe falling of a die on a particular face is as much the effect of a\ndefinite cause as the fact of its falling; it is a proverb that \"the\nwind bloweth where it listeth\"; and even thoughtful men usually receive\nwith surprise the suggestion, that the form of the crest of every wave\nthat breaks, wind-driven, on the sea-shore, and the direction of every\nparticle of foam that flies before the gale, are the exact effects of\ndefinite causes; and, as such, must be capable of being determined,\ndeductively, from the laws of motion and the properties of air and\nwater. So again, there are large numbers of highly intelligent persons\nwho rather pride themselves on their fixed belief that our volitions\nhave no cause; or that the will causes itself, which is either the same\nthing, or a contradiction in terms.\n\n\nCLVII\n\nTo say that an idea is necessary is simply to affirm that we cannot\nconceive the contrary; and the fact that we cannot conceive the contrary\nof any belief may be a presumption, but is certainly no proof, of its\ntruth.\n\n\nCLVIII\n\nIt is remarkable that Hume does not refer to the sentimental arguments\nfor the immortality of the soul which are so much in vogue at the\npresent day; and which are based upon our desire for a longer conscious\nexistence than that which nature appears to have allotted to us. Perhaps\nhe did not think them worth notice. For indeed it is not a little\nstrange, that our strong desire that a certain occurrence should happen\nshould be put forward as evidence that it will happen. If my intense\ndesire to see the friend, from whom I have parted, does not bring him\nfrom the other side of the world, or take me thither; if the mother's\nagonised prayer that her child should live has not prevented him from\ndying; experience certainly affords no presumption that the strong\ndesire to be alive after death, which we call the aspiration after\nimmortality, is any more likely to be gratified. As Hume truly says,\n\"All doctrines are to be suspected which are favoured by our passions\";\nand the doctrine, that we are immortal because we should extremely like\nto be so, contains the quintessence of suspiciousness.\n\n\nCLIX\n\nIf every man possessed everything he wanted, and no one had the power\nto interfere with such possession; or if no man desired that which\ncould damage his fellow-man, justice would have no part to play in the\nuniverse.\n\n\nCLX\n\nTo fail in justice, or in benevolence, is to be displeased with one's\nself. But happiness is impossible without inward self-approval; and,\nhence, every man who has any regard to his own happiness and welfare,\nwill find his best reward in the practice of every moral duty.\n\n\nCLXI\n\nVirtue is undoubtedly beneficent; but the man is to be envied to whom\nher ways seem in anywise playful. And though she may not talk much about\nsuffering and self-denial, her silence on that topic may be accounted\nfor on the principle _ca va sans dire_.\n\n\nCLXII\n\nIf mankind cannot be engaged in practices \"full of austerity and\nrigour?\" by the love of righteousness and the fear of evil, without\nseeking for other compensation than that which flows from the\ngratification of such love and the consciousness of escape from\ndebasement, they are in a bad case. For they will assuredly find that\nvirtue presents no very close likeness to the sportive leader of the\nJoyous hours in Hume's rosy picture; but that she is an awful Goddess,\nwhose ministers are the Furies, and whose highest reward is peace.\n\n\nCLXIII\n\nUnder its theological aspect, morality is obedience to the will of God;\nand the ground for such obedience is two-fold: either we ought to obey\nGod because He will punish us if we disobey Him, which is an argument\nbased on the utility of obedience; or our obedience ought to flow from\nour love towards God, which is an argument based on pure feeling and for\nwhich no reason can be given. For, if any man should say that he takes\nno pleasure in the contemplation of the ideal of perfect holiness, or,\nin other words, that he does not love God, the attempt to argue him\ninto acquiring that pleasure would be as hopeless as the endeavour to\npersuade Peter Bell of the \"witchery of the soft blue sky.\"\n\n\nCLXIV\n\nIn whichever way we look at the matter, morality is based on feeling,\nnot on reason; though reason alone is competent to trace out the effects\nof our actions and thereby dictate conduct. Justice is founded on the\nlove of one's neighbour; and goodness is a kind of beauty. The moral\nlaw, like the laws of physical nature, rests in the long run upon\ninstinctive intuitions, and is neither more nor less \"innate\" and\n\"necessary\" than they are. Some people cannot by any means be got to\nunderstand the first book of Euclid; but the truths of mathematics are\nno less necessary and binding on the great mass of mankind. Some there\nare who cannot feel the difference between the \"Sonata Appassionata\" and\n\"Cherry Ripe\"; or between a grave-stone-cutter's cherub and the Apollo\nBelvidere; but the canons of art are none the less acknowledged. While\nsome there may be, who, devoid of sympathy, are incapable of a sense\nof duty; but neither does their existence affect the foundations of\nmorality. Such pathological deviations from true manhood are merely the\nhalt, the lame, and the blind of the world of consciousness; and the\nanatomist of the mind leaves them aside, as the anatomist of the body\nwould ignore abnormal specimens.\n\nAnd as there are Pascals and Mozarts, Newtons and Raffaelles, in whom\nthe innate faculty for science or art seems to need but a touch to\nspring into full vigour, and through whom the human race obtains new\npossibilities of knowledge and new conceptions of beauty: so there have\nbeen men of moral genius, to whom we owe ideals of duty and visions\nof moral perfection, which ordinary mankind could never have attained:\nthough, happily for them, they can feel the beauty of a vision, which\nlay beyond the reach of their dull imaginations, and count life well\nspent in shaping some faint image of it in the actual world.\n\n\nCLXV\n\nThe horror of \"Materialism\" which weighs upon the minds of so many\nexcellent people appears to depend, in part, upon the purely accidental\nconnexion of some forms of materialistic philosophy with ethical\nand religious tenets by which they are repelled; and, partly, on the\nsurvival of a very ancient superstition concerning the nature of matter.\n\nThis superstition, for the tenacious vitality of which the idealistic\nphilosophers who are, more or less, disciples of Plato and the\ntheologians who have been influenced by them, are responsible,\nassumes that matter is something, not merely inert and perishable, but\nessentially base and evil-natured, if not actively antagonistic to, at\nleast a negative deadweight upon, the good.\n\n\nCLXVI\n\nJudging by contemporary literature, there are numbers of highly\ncultivated and indeed superior persons to whom the material world is\naltogether contemptible; who can see nothing in a handful of garden\nsoil, or a rusty nail, but types of the passive and the corruptible.\n\nTo modern science, these assumptions are as much out of date as the\nequally venerable errors, that the sun goes round the earth every\nfour-and-twenty hours, or that water is an elementary body. The handful\nof soil is a factory thronged with swarms of busy workers; the\nrusty nail is an aggregation of millions of particles, moving with\ninconceivable velocity in a dance of infinite complexity yet perfect\nmeasure; harmonic with like performances throughout the solar system.\nIf there is good ground for any conclusion, there is such for the belief\nthat the substance of these particles has existed and will exist, that\nthe energy which stirs them has persisted and will persist, without\nassignable limit, either in the past or the future. Surely, as\nHeracleitus said of his kitchen with its pots and pans, \"Here also\nare the gods.\" Little as we have, even yet, learned of the material\nuniverse, that little makes for the belief that it is a system of\nunbroken order and perfect symmetry, of which the form incessantly\nchanges, while the substance and the energy are imperishable.\n\n\nCLXVII\n\nOf all the dangerous mental habits, that which schoolboys call\n\"cocksureness\" is probably the most perilous; and the inestimable\nvalue of metaphysical discipline is that it furnishes an effectual\ncounterpoise to this evil proclivity. Whoso has mastered the elements\nof philosophy knows that the attribute of unquestionable certainty\nappertains only to the existence of a state of consciousness so long as\nit exists; all other beliefs are mere probabilities of a higher or lower\norder. Sound metaphysic is an amulet which renders its possessor proof\nalike against the poison of superstition and the counter-poison of\nshallow negation; by showing that the affirmations of the former and the\ndenials of the latter alike deal with matters about which, for lack of\nevidence, nothing can be either affirmed or denied.\n\n\nCLXVIII\n\nIf the question is asked, What then do we know about matter and motion?\nthere is but one reply possible. All that we know about motion is\nthat it is a name for certain changes in the relations of our visual,\ntactile, and muscular sensations; and all that we know about matter\nis that it is the hypothetical substance of physical phenomena, the\nassumption of the existence of which is as pure a piece of metaphysical\nspeculation as is that of the existence of the substance of mind.\n\nOur sensations, our pleasures, our pains, and the relations of these,\nmake up the sum total of the elements of positive, unquestionable\nknowledge. We call a large section of these sensations and\nthen-relations matter and motion; the rest we term mind and thinking;\nand experience shows that there is a certain constant order of\nsuccession between some of the former and some of the latter.\n\nThis is all that just metaphysical criticism leaves of the idols set\nup by the spurious metaphysics of vulgar common sense. It is consistent\neither with pure Materialism, or with pure Idealism, but it is neither.\nFor the Idealist, not content with declaring the truth that our\nknowledge is limited to facts of consciousness, affirms the wholly\nunprovable proposition that nothing exists beyond these and the\nsubstance of mind. And, on the other hand, the Materialist, holding\nby the truth that, for anything that appears to the contrary, material\nphenomena are the causes of mental phenomena, asserts his unprovable\ndogma, that material phenomena and the substance of matter are the sole\nprimary existences. Strike out the propositions about which neither\ncontroversialist does or can know anything, and there is nothing left\nfor them to quarrel about. Make a desert of the Unknowable, and the\ndivine Astraea of philosophic peace will commence her blessed reign.\n\n\nCLXIX\n\n\"Magna est Veritas et praevalebit!\" Truth is great, certainly, but,\nconsidering her greatness, it is curious what a long time she is apt to\ntake about prevailing.\n\n\nCLXX\n\nTo my observation, human nature has not sensibly changed through the\nlast thirty years. I doubt not that there are truths as plainly obvious\nand as generally denied, as those contained in \"Man's Place in Nature,\"\nnow awaiting enunciation. If there is a young man of the present\ngeneration, who has taken as much trouble as I did to assure himself\nthat they are truths, let him come out with them, without troubling\nhis head about the barking of the dogs of St. Ernulphus, \"Veritas\npraevalebit\"--some day; and, even if she does not prevail in his time,\nhe himself will be all the better and the wiser for having tried to help\nher. And let him recollect that such great reward is full payment for\nall his labour and pains.\n\n\nCLXXI\n\nAncient traditions, when tested by the severe processes of modern\ninvestigations, commonly enough fade away into mere dreams: but it is\nsingular how often the dream turns out to have been a half-waking one?\npresaging a reality. Ovid foreshadowed the discoveries of the geologist:\nthe Atlantis was an imagination, but Columbus found a western world: and\nthough the quaint forms of Centaurs and Satyrs have an existence only\nin the realms of art, creatures approaching man more nearly than they\nin essential structure, and yet as thoroughly brutal as the goat's\nor horse's half of the mythical compound, are now not only known, but\nnotorious.\n\n\nCLXXII\n\nIt is a truth of very wide, if not of universal, application, that every\nliving creature commences its existence under a form different from, and\nsimpler than, that which it eventually attains.\n\nThe oak is a more complex thing than the little rudimentary plant\ncontained in the acorn; the caterpillar is more complex than the egg;\nthe butterfly than the caterpillar; and each of these beings, in passing\nfrom its rudimentary to its perfect condition, runs through a series\nof changes, the sum of which is called its development In the higher\nanimals these changes are extremely complicated; but, within the last\nhalf century, the labours of such men as Von Baer, Rathke, Reichert,\nBischoff, and Remak, have almost completely unravelled them, so that\nthe successive stages of development which are exhibited by a dog, for\nexample, are now as well known to the embryologist as are the steps of\nthe metamorphosis of the silk-worm moth to the schoolboy. It will be\nuseful to consider with attention the nature and the order of the\nstages of canine development, as an example of the process in the higher\nanimals generally.\n\n\nCLXXIII\n\nExactly in those respects in which the developing Man differs from the\nDog, he resembles the ape, which, like man, has a spheroidal yolk-sac\nand a discoidal, sometimes partially lobed, placenta. So that it is\nonly quite in the later stages of development that the young human being\npresents marked differences from the young ape, while the latter departs\nas much from the dog in its development, as the man does.\n\nStartling as the last assertion may appear to be, it is demonstrably\ntrue, and it alone appears to me sufficient to place beyond all doubt\nthe structural unity of man with the rest of the animal world, and more\nparticularly and closely with the apes.\n\nThus, identical in the physical processes by which he\noriginates--identical in the early stages of his formation--identical in\nthe mode of his nutrition before and after birth, with the animals which\nlie immediately below him in the scale--Man, if his adult and perfect\nstructure be compared with theirs, exhibits, as might be expected, a\nmarvellous likeness of organisation. He resembles them as they resemble\none another--he differs from them as they differ from one another.\n\n\nCLXXIV\n\nIf a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion\nabout its altar-piece or painted window.\n\n\nCLXXV\n\nPerhaps no order of mammals presents us with so extraordinary a series\nof gradations as this*--leading us insensibly from the crown and summit\nof the animal creation down to creatures, from which there is but a\nstep, as it seems, to the lowest, smallest, and least intelligent of\nthe placental Mammalia. It is as if nature herself had foreseen\nthe arrogance of man, and with Roman severity had provided that his\nintellect, by its very triumphs, should call into prominence the slaves,\nadmonishing the conqueror that he is but dust.\n\n\nCLXXVI\n\nIf Man be separated by no greater structural barrier from the brutes\nthan they are from one another--then it seems to follow that if any\nprocess of physical causation can be discovered by which the genera\nand families of ordinary animals have been produced, that process of\ncausation is amply sufficient to account for the origin of Man.\n\n     * This alludes to a foregoing enumeration of the seven\n     families of Primates headed by the Anthropini containing man\n     alone.\n\n\nCLXXVII\n\nThe whole analogy of natural operations furnishes so complete and\ncrushing an argument against the intervention of any but what are\ntermed secondary causes, in the production of all the phenomena of the\nuniverse; that, in view of the intimate relations between Man and the\nrest of the living world, and between the forces exerted by the latter\nand all other forces, I can see no excuse for doubting that all are\nco-ordinated terms of Nature's great progression, from the formless\nto the formed--from tne inorganic to the organic--from blind force to\nconscious intellect and will.\n\n\nCLXXVIII\n\nScience has fulfilled her function when she has ascertained and\nenunciated truth.\n\n\nCLXXIX\n\nThoughtful men, once escaped from the blinding influences of traditional\nprejudice, will find in the lowly stock whence Man has sprung the best\nevidence of the splendour of his capacities; and will discern in his\nlong progress through the Past a reasonable ground of faith in his\nattainment of a nobler Future...\n\nAnd after passion and prejudice have died away, the same result will\nattend the teachings of the naturalist respecting that great Alps\nand Andes of the living world--Man. Our reverence for the nobility of\nmanhood will not be lessened by the knowledge that Man is, in substance\nand in structure, one with the brutes; for he alone possesses the\nmarvellous endowment of intelligible and rational speech, whereby,\nin the secular period of his existence, he has slowly accumulated and\norganised the experience which is almost wholly lost with the cessation\nof every individual life in other animals; so that, now, he stands\nraised upon it as on a mountain top, far above the level of nis humble\nfellows, and transfigured from his grosser nature by reflecting, here\nand there, a ray from the infinite source of truth.\n\n\nCLXXX\n\nEthnology, as thus defined, is a branch of Anthropology, the great\nscience which unravels the complexities of human structure; traces out\nthe relations of man to other animals; studies all that is especially\nhuman in the mode in which man's complex functions are performed; and\nsearches after the conditions whicn have determined his presence IN\nthe world. And Anthropology is a section of Zoology, which again is the\nanimal half of Biology--the science of life and living things.\n\nSuch is the position of ethnology, such are the objects of the\nethnologist. The paths or methods, by following which he may hope to\nreach his goal, are diverse. He may work at man from the point of view\nof the pure zoologist, and investigate the anatomical and physiological\npeculiarities of Negroes, Australians, or Mongolians, just as he would\ninquire into those of pointers, terriers, and turnspits,--\"persistent\nmodifications\" of man's almost universal companion. Or he may seek aid\nfrom researches into the most human manifestation of humanity-Language;\nand assuming that what is true of speech is true of the speaker--a\nhypothesis as questionable in science as it is in ordinary life--he\nmay apply to mankind themselves the conclusions drawn from a searching\nanalysis of their words and grammatical forms.\n\nOr, the ethnologist may turn to the study of the practical life of men;\nand relying upon the inherent conservatism and small inventiveness of\nuntutored mankind, he may hope to discover in manners and customs, or\nin weapons, dwellings, and other handiwork, a clue to the origin of the\nresemblances and differences of nations. Or, he may resort to that kind\nof evidence which is yielded by History proper, and consists of the\nbeliefs of men concerning past events, embodied in traditional, or in\nwritten, testimony. Or, when that thread breaks, Archaeology, which is\nthe interpretation of the unrecorded remains of man's works, belonging\nto the epoch since the world has reached its present condition, may\nstill guide him. And, when even the dim light of archaeology fades,\nthere yet remains Palaeontology which, in these latter years, has\nbrought to daylight once more the exuvia of ancient populations, whose\nworld was not our world, who have been buried in river beds immemorially\ndry, or carried by the rush of waters into caves, inaccessible to\ninundation since the dawn of tradition.\n\n\nCLXXXI\n\nThe rapid increase of natural knowledge, which is the chief\ncharacteristic of our age, is effected in various ways. The main army of\nscience moves to the conquest of new worlds slowly and surely, nor ever\ncedes an inch of the territory gained. But the advance is covered and\nfacilitated by the ceaseless activity of clouds of light troops provided\nwith a weapon--always efficient, if not always an arm of precision--the\nscientific imagination. It is the business of these _enfants perdus_ of\nscience to make raids into the realm of ignorance wherever they see, or\nthink they see, a chance; and cheerfully to accept defeat, or it may be\nannihilation, as the reward of error. Unfortunately the public, which\nwatches the progress of the campaign, too often mistakes a dashing\nincursion of the Uhlans for a forward movement of the main body; fondly\nimagining that the strategic movement to the rear, which occasionally\nfollows, indicates a battle lost by science. And it must be\nconfessed that the error is too often justified by the effects of the\nirrepressible tendency which men of science share with all other sorts\nof men known to me, to be impatient of that most wholesome state of\nmind--suspended judgment; to assume the objective truth of speculations\nwhich, from the nature of the evidence in their favour, can have no\nclaim to be more than working hypotheses.\n\nThe history of the \"Aryan question\" affords a striking illustration of\nthese general remarks.\n\n\nCLXXXII\n\nLanguage is rooted half in the bodily and half in the mental nature of\nman. The vocal sounds which form the raw materials of language could not\nbe produced without a peculiar conformation of the organs of speech; the\nenunciation of duly accented syllables would be impossible without\nthe nicest coordination of the action of the muscles which move these\norgans; and such co-ordination depends on the mechanism of certain\nportions of the nervous system. It is therefore conceivable that the\nstructure of this highly complex speaking apparatus should determine a\nman's linguistic potentiality; that is to say, should enable him to use\na language of one class and not of another. It is further conceivable\nthat a particular linguistic potentiality should be inherited and become\nas good a race mark as any other. As a matter of fact, it is not proven\nthat the linguistic potentialities of all men are the same.\n\n\nCLXXXIII\n\nCommunity of language is no proof of unity of race, is not even\npresumptive evidence of racial identity. All that it does prove is that,\nat some time or other, free and prolonged intercourse has taken place\nbetween the speakers of the same language.\n\n\nCLXXXIV\n\nThe capacity of the population of Europe for independent progress while\nin the copper and early bronze stage--the \"palaeo-metallic\" stage, as it\nmight be called--appears to me to be demonstrated in a remarkable manner\nby the remains of their architecture. From the crannog to the\nelaborate pile-dwelling, and from the rudest enclosure to the complex\nfortification of the terramare, there is an advance which is obviously\na native product. So with the sepulchral constructions; the stone\ncist, with or without a preservative or memorial cairn, grows into the\nchambered graves lodged in tumuli; into such megalithic edifices as the\ndromic vaults of Maes How and New Grange; to culminate in the finished\nmasonry of the tombs of Mycenae, constructed on exactly the same plan.\nCan anyone look at the varied series of forms which lie between the\nprimitive five or six flat stones fitted together into a mere box, and\nsuch a building as Maes How, and yet imagine that the latter is the\nresult of foreign tuition? But the men who built Maes How, without metal\ntools, could certainly have built the so-called \"treasure-house\" of\nMycenae, with them.\n\n\nCLXXXV\n\nReckoned by centuries, the remoteness of the quaternary, or pleistocene,\nage from our own is immense, and it is difficult to form an adequate\nnotion of its duration. Undoubtedly there is an abysmal difference\nbetween the Neanderthaloid race and the comely living specimens of\nthe blond long-heads with whom we are familiar. But the abyss of time\nbetween the period at which North Europe was first covered with ice,\nwhen savages pursued mammoths and scratched their portraits with sharp\nstones in central France, and the present day, ever widens as we learn\nmore about the events which bridge it. And, if the differences between\nthe Neanderthaloid men and ourselves could be divided into as many parts\nas that time contains centuries, the progress from part to part would\nprobably be almost imperceptible.\n\n\nCLXXXVI\n\nI have not been one of those fortunate persons who are able to regard\na popular lecture as a mere _hors d'oeuvre_, unworthy of being ranked\namong the serious efforts of a philosopher; and who keep their fame as\nscientific hierophants unsullied by attempts--at least of the successful\nsort--to be understanded of the people.\n\nOn the contrary, I found that the task of putting the truths learned in\nthe field, the laboratory and the museum, into language which, without\nbating a jot of scientific accuracy shall be generally intelligible,\ntaxed such scientific and literary faculty as I possessed to the\nuttermost; indeed my experience has furnished me with no better\ncorrective of the tendency to scholastic pedantry which besets all those\nwho are absorbed in pursuits remote from the common ways of men, and\nbecome habituated to think and speak in the technical dialect of their\nown little world, as if there were no other.\n\nIf the popular lecture thus, as I believe, finds one moiety of its\njustification in the self-discipline of the lecturer, it surely finds\nthe other half in its effect on the auditory. For though various sadly\ncomical experiences of the results of my own efforts have led me to\nentertain a very moderate estimate of the purely intellectual value of\nlectures; though I venture to doubt if more than one in ten of an average\naudience carries away an accurate notion of what the speaker has been\ndriving at; yet is that not equally true of the oratory of the hustings,\nof the House of Commons, and even of the pulpit?\n\nYet the children of this world are wise in their generation; and both\nthe politician and the priest are justified by results. The living\nvoice has an influence over human action altogether independent of the\nintellectual worth of that which it utters. Many years ago, I was a\nguest at a great City dinner. A famous orator, endowed with a voice\nof rare flexibility and power; a born actor, ranging with ease through\nevery part, from refined comedy to tragic unction, was called upon\nto reply to a toast. The orator was a very busy man, a charming\nconversationalist and by no means despised a good dinner; and, I\nimagine, rose without having given a thought to what he was going to\nsay. The rhythmic roll of sound was admirable, the gestures perfect,\nthe earnestness impressive; nothing was lacking save sense and,\noccasionally, grammar. When the speaker sat down the applause was\nterrific and one of my neighbours was especially enthusiastic. So when\nhe had quieted down, I asked him what the orator had said. And he could\nnot tell me.\n\nThat sagacious person John Wesley is reported to have replied to some\none who questioned the propriety of his adaptation of sacred words to\nextremely secular airs, that he did not see why the Devil should be left\nin possession of all the best tunes. And I do not see why science should\nnot turn to account the peculiarities of human nature thus exploited\nby other agencies: all the more because science, by the nature of its\nbeing, cannot desire to stir the passions, or profit by the weaknesses,\nof human nature. The most zealous of popular lecturers can aim at\nnothing more than the awakening of a sympathy for abstract truth, in\nthose who do not really follow his arguments; and of a desire to know\nmore and better in the few who do.\n\nAt the same time it must be admitted that the popularisation of\nscience, whether by lecture or essay, has its drawbacks. Success in this\ndepartment has its perils for those who succeed. The \"people who fail\"\ntake their revenge, as we have recently had occasion to observe, by\nignoring all the rest of a man's work and glibly labelling him a mere\npopulariser. If the falsehood were not too glaring, they would say the\nsame of Faraday and Helmholtz and Kelvin.\n\n\nCLXXXVII\n\nOf the affliction caused by persons who think that what they have picked\nup from popular exposition qualifies them for discussing the great\nproblems of science, it may be said, as the Radical toast said of\nthe power of the Crown in bygone days, that it \"has increased, is\nincreasing, and ought to be diminished.\" The oddities of \"English as she\nis spoke\" might be abundantly paralleled by those of \"Science as she is\nmisunderstood\" in the sermon, the novel, and the leading article; and a\ncollection of the grotesque travesties of scientific conceptions, in the\nshape of essays on such trifles as \"the Nature of Life\" and the \"Origin\nof All Things,\" which reach me, from time to time, might well be bound\nup with them.\n\n\nCLXXXVIII\n\nThe essay on Geological Reform unfortunately brought me, I will not say\ninto collision, but into a position of critical remonstrance with regard\nto some charges of physical heterodoxy, brought by my distinguished\nfriend Lord Kelvin, against British Geology. As President of the\nGeological Society of London at that time (1869), I thought I might\nventure to plead that we were not such heretics as we seemed to be;\nand that, even if we were, recantation would not affect the question of\nevolution.\n\nI am glad to see that Lord Kelvin has just reprinted his reply to my\nplea, and I refer the reader to it. I shall not presume to question\nanything, that on such ripe consideration, Lord Kelvin has to say upon\nthe physical problems involved. But I may remark that no one can have\nasserted more strongly than I have done, the necessity of looking to\nphysics and mathematics, for help in regard to the earliest history of\nthe globe.\n\nAnd I take the opportunity of repeating the opinion that, whether what\nwe call geological time has the lower limit assigned to it by Lord\nKelvin, or the higher assumed by other philosophers; whether the germs\nof all living things have originated in the globe itself, or whether\nthey have been imported on, or in, meteorites from without, the problem\nof the origin of those successive Faunae and Florae of the earth, the\nexistence of which is fully demonstrated by palaeontology, remains\nexactly where it was.\n\nFor I think it will be admitted, that the germs brought to us by\nmeteorites, if any, were not ova of elephants, nor of crocodiles; not\ncocoa-nuts nor acorns; not even eggs of shell-fish and corals; but only\nthose of the lowest forms of animal and vegetable life. Therefore, since\nit is proved that, from a very remote epoch of geological time, the\nearth has been peopled by a continual succession of the higher forms of\nanimals and plants, these either must have been created, or they have\narisen by evolution. And in respect of certain groups of animals, the\nwell-established facts of palaeontology leave no rational doubt that\nthey arose by the latter method.\n\nIn the second place, there are no data whatever, which justify the\nbiologist in assigning any, even approximately definite, period of time,\neither long or short, to the evolution of one species from another\nby the process of variation and selection. In the essay on Geological\nContemporaneity and Persistent Types of Life I have taken pains to\nprove that the change of animals has gone on at very different rates in\ndifferent groups of living beings; that some types have persisted with\nlittle change from the palaeozoic epoch till now, while others have\nchanged rapidly within the limits of an epoch. In 1862 (see Coll. Ess\nviii pp. 303,304) in 1863 (vol ii., p 461) and again in 1864 (ibid.,\npp. 89-91) I argued, not as a matter of speculation, but from\npalaeontological facts, the bearing of which I believe, up to that\ntime, had not been shown, that any adequate hypothesis of the causes\nof evolution must be consistent with progression, stationariness and\nretrogression, of the same type at different epochs; of different\ntypes in the same epoch; and that Darwin's hypothesis fulfilled these\nconditions.\n\nAccording to that hypothesis, two factors are at work, variation and\nselection. Next to nothing is known of the causes of the former process;\nnothing whatever of the time required for the production of a certain\namount of deviation from the existing type. And, as respects selection,\nwhich operates by extinguishing all but a small minority of variations,\nwe have not the slightest means of estimating the rapidity with which it\ndoes its work. All that we are justified in saying is that the rate\nat which it takes place may vary almost indefinitely. If the famous\npaint-root of Florida, which kills white pigs but not black ones, were\nabundant and certain in its action, black pigs might be substituted for\nwhite in the course of two or three years. If, on the other hand, it\nwas rare and uncertain in action, the white pigs might linger on for\ncenturies.\n\n\nCLXXXIX\n\nA great chapter of the history of the world is written in the chalk. Few\npassages in the history of man can be supported by such an overwhelming\nmass of direct and indirect evidence as that which testifies to the\ntruth of the fragment of the history of the globe, which I hope to\nenable you to read, with your own eyes, to-night. Let me add, that\nfew chapters of human history have a more profound significance for\nourselves. I weigh my words well when I assert, that the man who should\nknow the true history of the bit of chalk which every carpenter carries\nabout in his breeches-pocket, though ignorant of all other history, is\nlikely, if he will think his knowledge out to its ultimate results,\nto have a truer, and therefore a better, conception of this wonderful\nuniverse, and of man's relation to it, than the most learned student who\nis deep-read in the records of humanity and ignorant of those of Nature.\n\n\nCXC\n\nThe examination of a transparent slice gives a good notion of the manner\nin which the components of the chalk are arranged, and of their relative\nproportions. But, by rubbing up some chalk with a brush in water and\nthen pouring off the milky fluid, so as to obtain sediments of different\ndegrees of fineness, the granules and the minute rounded bodies may be\npretty well separated from one another, and submitted to microscopic\nexamination, either as opaque or as transparent objects. By combining\nthe views obtained in these various methods, each of the rounded bodies\nmay be proved to be a beautifully-constructed calcareous fabric, made\nup of a number of chambers, communicating freely with one another. The\nchambered bodies are of various forms. One of the commonest is something\nlike a badly-grown raspberry, being formed of a number of nearly\nglobular chambers of different sizes congregated together. It is called\n_Globigerina_, and some specimens of chalk consist of little else\nthan _Globigerinae_ and granules. Let us fix our attention upon the\n_Globigerina_. It is the spoor of the game we are tracking. If we can\nlearn what it is and what are the conditions of its existence, we shall\nsee our way to the origin and past history of the chalk.\n\n\nCXCI\n\nIt so happens that calcareous skeletons, exactly similar to the\n_Globigerinae_ of the chalk, are being formed, at the present moment, by\nminute living creatures, which flourish in multitudes, literally more\nnumerous than the sands of the sea-shore, over a large extent of that\npart of the earth's surface which is covered by the ocean.\n\nThe history of the discovery of these living _Globigerinae_ and of the\npart which they play in rock building, is singular enough. It is a\ndiscovery which, like others of no less scientific importance, has\narisen, incidentally, out of work devoted to very different and\nexceedingly practical interests. When men first took to the sea, they\nspeedily learned to look out for shoals and rocks; and the more the\nburthen of their ships increased, the more imperatively necessary it\nbecame for sailors to ascertain with precision the depth of the waters\nthey traversed. Out of this necessity grew the use of the lead and\nsounding line; and, ultimately, marine-surveying, which is the recording\nof the form of coasts and of the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the\nsounding-lead, upon charts.\n\n\nCXCII\n\nLieut Brooke, of the American Navy, some years ago invented a most\ningenious machine, by which a considerable portion of the superficial\nlayer of the sea-bottom can be scooped out and brought up from any depth\nto which the lead descends. In 1853, Lieut. Brooke obtained mud from the\nbottom of the North Atlantic, between Newfoundland and the Azores, at\na depth of more than 10,000 feet, or two miles, by the help of this\nsounding apparatus. The specimens were sent for examination to Ehrenberg\nof Berlin, and to Bailey of West Point, and those able microscopists\nfound that this deep-sea mud was almost entirety composed of the\nskeletons of living organisms--the greater proportion of these being\njust like the _Globigerinae_ already known to occur in the chalk.\n\nThus far, the work had been carried on simply in the interests\nof science, but Lieut Brooke's method of sounding acquired a high\ncommercial value, when the enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable\nbetween this country and the United States was undertaken. For it became\na matter of immense importance to know, not only the depth of the sea\nover the whole line along which the cable was to be laid, but the exact\nnature of the bottom, so as to guard against chances of cutting or\nfraying the strands of that costly rope. The Admiralty consequently\nordered Captain Dayman, an old friend and shipmate of mine, to ascertain\nthe depth over the whole line of the cable, and to bring back specimens\nof the bottom. In former days, such a command as this might have sounded\nvery much like one of the impossible things which the young Prince in\nthe Fairy Tales is ordered to do before he can obtain the hand of the\nPrincess. However, in the months of June and July, 1857, my friend\nperformed the task assigned to nim with great expedition and precision,\nwithout, so far as I know, having met with any reward of that kind.\nThe specimens of Atlantic mud which he procured were sent to me to be\nexamined and reported upon.\n\n\nCXCIII\n\nThe result of all these operations is, that we know the contours and the\nnature of the surface-soil covered by the North Atlantic for a distance\nof 1,700 miles from east to west, as well as we know that of any part of\nthe dry land. It is a prodigious plain-one of the widest and most even\nplains in the world. If the sea were drained off, you might drive a\nwaggon all the way from Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland, to\nTrinity Bay in Newfoundland. And, except upon one sharp incline about\n200 miles from Valentia, I am not quite sure that it would even be\nnecessary to put the skid on, so gentle are the ascents and descents\nupon that long route. From Valentia the road would lie down-hill for\nabout 200 miles to the point at which the bottom is now covered by 1,700\nfathoms of sea-water. Then would come the central plain, more than a\nthousand miles wide, the inequalities of the surface of which would be\nhardly perceptible, though the depth of water upon it now varies from\n10,000 to 15,000 feet; and there are places in which Mont Blanc might\nbe sunk without showing its peak above water. Beyond this, the ascent on\nthe American side commences, and gradually leads, for about 300 miles,\nto the Newfoundland shore.\n\n\nCXCIV\n\nWhen we consider that the remains of more than three thousand distinct\nspecies of aquatic animals have been discovered among the fossils of the\nchalk, that the great majority of them are of such forms as are now met\nwith only in the sea, and that there is no reason to believe that any\none of them inhabited fresh water--the collateral evidence that the\nchalk represents an ancient sea-bottom acquires as great force as the\nproof derived from the nature of the chalk itself. I think you will now\nallow that I did not overstate my case when I asserted that we have\nas strong grounds for believing that all the vast area of dry land, at\npresent occupied by the chalk, was once at the bottom of the sea, as we\nhave for any matter of history whatever; while there is no justification\nfor any other belief.\n\nNo less certain it is that the time during which the countries we now\ncall south-east England, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Arabia,\nSyria, were more or less completely covered by a deep sea, was of\nconsiderable duration. We have already seen that the chalk is, in\nplaces, more than a thousand feet thick. I think you will agree with me\nthat it must have taken some time for the skeletons of animalcules of a\nhundredth of an inch in diameter to heap up such a mass as that.\n\n\nCXCV\n\nIf the decay of the soft parts of the sea-urchin; the attachment, growth\nto maturity, and decay of the _Crania_; and the subsequent attachment\nand growth of the coralline, took a year (which is a low-estimate\nenough), the accumulation of the inch of chalk must have taken more than\na year: and the deposit of a thousand feet of chalk must, consequently,\nhave taken more than twelve thousand years.\n\n\nCXCVI\n\nThere is a writing upon the wall of cliffs at Cromer, and whoso runs may\nread it. It tells us, with an authority which cannot be impeached, that\nthe ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and remained dry\nland, until it was covered with forest, stocked with the great game the\nspoils of which have rejoiced your geologists. How long it remained in\nthat condition cannot be said; but \"the whirligig of time brought its\nrevenges\" in those days as in these. That dry land, with the bones and\nteeth of generations of long-lived elephants, hidden away among the\ngnarled roots and dry leaves of its ancient trees, sank gradually to the\nbottom of the icy sea, which covered it with huge masses of drift and\nboulder clay. Sea-beasts, such as the walrus, now restricted to the\nextreme north, paddled about where birds had twittered among the topmost\ntwigs of the fir-trees. How long this state of things endured we know\nnot, but at length it came to an end. The upheaved glacial mud hardened\ninto the soil of modern Norfolk. Forests grew once more, the wolf and\nthe beaver replaced the reindeer and the elephant; and at length what we\ncall the history of England dawned.\n\n\nCXCVII\n\nDirect proof may be given that some parts of the land of the northern\nhemisphere are at this moment insensibly rising and others insensibly\nsinking; and there is indirect, but perfectly satisfactory, proof, that\nan enormous area now covered by the Pacific has been deepened thousands\nof feet, since the present inhabitants of that sea came into existence.\nThus there is not a shadow of a reason for believing that the physical\nchanges of the globe, in past times, have been effected by other than\nnatural causes.\n\n\nCXCVIII\n\nA small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I were to put the bit\nof chalk with which we started into the hot but obscure flame of burning\nhydrogen, it would presently shine like the sun. It seems to me that\nthis physical metamorphosis is no false image of what has been\nthe result of our subjecting it to a jet of fervent, though nowise\nbrilliant, thought to-night. It has become luminous, and its clear rays,\npenetrating the abyss of the remote past, have brought within our ken\nsome stages of the evolution of the earth. And in the shifting \"without\nhaste, but without rest\" of the land and sea, as in the endless\nvariation of the forms assumed by living beings, we have observed\nnothing but the natural product of the forces originally possessed by\nthe substance of the universe.\n\n\nCXCIX\n\nIn certain parts of the sea bottom in the immediate vicinity of the\nBritish Islands, as in the Clyde district, among the Hebrides, in the\nMoray Firth, and in the German Ocean, there are depressed areae, forming\na kind of submarine valleys, the centres of which are from 80 to 100\nfathoms, or more, deep. These depressions are inhabited by assemblages\nof marine animals, which differ from those found over the adjacent and\nshallower region, and resemble those which are met with much farther\nnorth, on the Norwegian coast. Forbes called these Scandinavian\ndetachments \"Northern outliers.\"\n\nHow did these isolated patches of a northern population get into these\ndeep places? To explain the mystery, Forbes called to mind the fact\nthat, in the epoch which immediately preceded the present, the climate\nwas much colder (whence the name of \"glacial epoch\" applied to it); and\nthat the shells which are found fossil, or sub-fossil, in deposits\nof that age are precisely such as are now to be met with only in the\nScandinavian, or still more Arctic, regions. Undoubtedly, during the\nglacial epoch, the general population of our seas had, universally, the\nnorthern aspect which is now presented only by the \"northern outliers\";\njust as the vegetation of the land, down to the sea-level, had the\nnorthern character which is, at present, exhibited only by the plants\nwhich live on the tops of our mountains. But, as the glacial epoch\npassed away, and the present climatal conditions were developed, the\nnorthern plants were able to maintain themselves only on the bleak\nheights, on which southern forms could not compete with them. And,\nin like manner, Forbes suggested that, after the glacial epoch, the\nnorthern animals then inhabiting the sea became restricted to the deeps\nin which they could hold their own against invaders from the south,\nbetter fitted than they to flourish in the warmer waters of the\nshallows. Thus depth in the sea corresponded in its effect upon\ndistribution to height on the land.\n\n\nCC\n\nAmong the scientific instructions for the voyage* drawn up by a\ncommittee of the Royal Society, there is a remarkable letter from Von\nHumboldt to Lord Minto, then First Lord of the Admiralty, in which,\namong other things, he dwells upon the significance of the researches\ninto the microscopic composition of rocks, and the discovery of the\ngreat share which microscopic organisms take in the formation of the\ncrust of the earth at the present day, made by Ehrenberg in the years\n1836-39. Ehrenberg, in fact, had shown that the extensive beds of\n\"rotten-stone\" or \"Tripoli\" which occur in various parts of the world,\nand notably at Bilin in Bohemia, consisted of accumulations of the\nsilicious cases and skeletons of _Diatomaceae_ sponges, and _Radiolaria_;\nhe had proved that similar deposits were being formed by Diatomaceae, in\nthe pools of the Thiergarten in Berlin and elsewhere, and had pointed\nout that, if it were commercially worth while, rotten-stone might be\nmanufactured by a process of diatom-culture. Observations conducted at\nCuxhaven, in 1839, had revealed the existence, at the surface of the\nwaters of the Baltic, of living Diatoms and _Radiolaria_ of the same\nspecies as those which, in a fossil state, constitute extensive rocks\nof tertiary age at Caltanisetta, Zante, and Oran, on the shores of the\nMediterranean.\n\n     * Of the Challenger.\n\nMoreover, in the fresh-water rotten-stone beds of Bilin, Ehrenberg\nhad traced out the metamorphosis, effected apparently by the action\nof percolating water, of the primitively loose and friable deposit\nof organized particles, in which the silex exists in the hydrated\nor soluble condition. The silex, in fact undergoes solution and slow\nredeposition, until, in ultimate result, the excessively finegrained\nsand, each particle of which is a skeleton, becomes converted into\na dense opaline stone, with only here and there an indication of an\norganism.\n\nFrom the consideration of these facts, Ehrenberg, as early as the year\n1839, had arrived at the conclusion that rocks, altogether similar to\nthose which constitute a large part of the crust of the earth, must be\nforming, at the present day, at the bottom of the sea; and he threw out\nthe suggestion that even where no trace of organic structure is to be\nfound in the older rocks, it may have been lost by metamorphosis.\n\n\nCCI\n\nIt is highly creditable to the ingenuity of our ancestors that the\npeculiar property of fermented liquids, in virtue of which they \"make\nglad the heart of man,\" seems to have been known in the remotest periods\nof which we have any record. All savages take to alcoholic fluids as\nif they were to the manner born. Our Vedic forefathers intoxicated\nthemselves with the juice of the \"soma\"; Noah, by a not unnatural\nreaction against a superfluity of water, appears to have taken the\nearliest practicable opportunity of qualifying that which he was obliged\nto drink; and the ghosts of the ancient Egyptians were solaced by\npictures of banquets in which the wine-cup passes round, graven on\nthe walls of their tombs. A knowledge of the process of fermentation,\ntherefore, was in all probability possessed by the prehistoric\npopulations of the globe; and it must have become a matter of great\ninterest even to primaeval wine-bibbers to study the methods by which\nfermented liquids could be surely manufactured. No doubt it was soon\ndiscovered that the most certain, as well as the most expeditious, way\nof making a sweet juice ferment was to add to it a little of the scum,\nor lees, of another fermenting juice. And it can hardly be questioned\nthat this singular excitation of fermentation in one fluid, by a sort\nof infection, or inoculation, of a little ferment taken from some other\nfluid, together with the strange swelling, foaming, and hissing of the\nfermented substance, must have always attracted attention from the more\nthoughtful. Nevertheless, the commencement of the scientific analysis of\nthe Sphenomena dates from a period not earlier than the first half of the\nseventeenth century. At this time, Van Helmont made a first step, by\npointing out that the peculiar hissing and bubbling of a fermented\nliquid is due, not to the evolution of common air (which he, as the\ninventor of the term \"gas,\" calls \"gas ventosum\"), but to that of a\npeculiar kind of air such as is occasionally met with in caves, mines,\nand wells, and which he calls \"gas sylvestre.\"\n\nBut a century elapsed before the nature of this \"gas sylvestre,\" or as\nit was afterwards called, \"fixed air,\" was clearly determined, and it\nwas found to be identical with that deadly \"choke-damp\" by which the\nlives of those who descend into old wells, or mines, or brewers' vats,\nare sometimes suddenly ended; and with the poisonous aeriform fluid\nwhich is produced by the combustion of charcoal, and now goes by the\nname of carbonic acid gas.\n\nDuring the same time it gradually became evident that the presence of\nsugar was essential to the production of alcohol and the evolution of\ncarbonic acid gas, which are the two great and conspicuous\nproducts of fermentation. And finally, in 1787, the Italian chemist,\nFabroni, made the capital discovery that the yeast ferment, the\npresence of which is necessary to fermentation, is what he termed a\n\"vegeto-animal\" substance; that is, a body which gives off ammoniacal\nsalts when it is burned, and is, in other ways, similar to the gluten of\nplants and the albumen and casein of animals.\n\n\nCCII\n\nThe living club-mosses are, for the most part, insignificant and\ncreeping herbs, which, superficially, very closely resemble true mosses,\nand none of them reach more than two or three feet in height. But,\nin their essential structure, they very closely resemble the earliest\nLepidodendroid trees of the coal: their stems and leaves are similar;\nso are their cones; and no less like are the sporangia and spores; while\neven in their size, the spores of the _Lepidodendron_ and those of the\nexisting _Lycopodium_, or club-moss, very closely approach one another.\n\nThus, the singular conclusion is forced upon us, that the greater and\nthe smaller sacs of the \"Better-Bed\" and other coals, in which the\nprimitive structure is well preserved, are simply the sporangia and\nspores of certain plants, many of whicn were closely allied to the\nexisting club-mosses. And if, as I believe, it can be demonstrated\nthat ordinary coal Is nothing but \"saccular\" coal which has undergone a\ncertain amount of that alteration which, if continued, would convert it\ninto anthracite; then, the conclusion is obvious, that the great mass\nof the coal we burn is the result of the accumulation of the spores\nand spore-cases of plants, other parts of which have furnished\nthe carbonized stems and the mineral charcoal, or have left their\nimpressions on the surfaces of the layer.\n\n\nCCIII\n\nThe position of the beds which constitute the coal-measures is\ninfinitely diverse. Sometimes they are tilted up vertically, sometimes\nthey are horizontal, sometimes curved into great basins; sometimes they\ncome to the surface, sometimes they are covered up by thousands of feet\nof rock. But, whatever then-present position, there is abundant and\nconclusive evidence that every under-clay was once a surface soil. Not\nonly do carbonized root-fibres frequently abound in these under-clays;\nbut the stools of trees, the trunks of which are broken off and\nconfounded with the bed of coal, have been repeatedly found passing into\nradiating roots, still embedded in the under-clay. On many parts of the\ncoast of England, what are commonly known as \"submarine forests\" are to\nbe seen at low water. They consist, for the most part, of short stools\nof oak, beech, and fir-trees, still fixed by their long roots in the bed\nof blue clay in which they originally grew. If one of these submarine\nforest beds should be gradually depressed and covered up by new\ndeposits, it would present just the same characters as an under-clay of\nthe coal, if the _Sigillaria_ and _Lepidodendron_ of the ancient world\nwere substituted for the oak, or the beech, of our own times.\n\nIn a tropical forest, at the present day, the trunks of fallen trees,\nand the stools of such trees as may have been broken by the violence of\nstorms, remain entire for but a short time. Contrary to what might\nbe expected, the dense wood of the tree decays, and suffers from the\nravages of insects, more swiftly than the bark. And the traveller,\nsetting his foot on a prostrate trunk, finds that it is a mere shell,\nwhich breaks under his weight, and lands his foot amidst the insects, or\nthe reptiles, which have sought food or refuge within.\n\n\nCCIV\n\nThe coal accumulated upon the area covered by one of the great forests\nof the carboniferous epoch would, in course of time, have been wasted\naway by the small, but constant, wear and tear of rain and streams,\nhad the land which supported it remained at the same level, or been\ngradually raised to a greater elevation. And, no doubt, as much coal as\nnow exists has been destroyed, after its formation, in this way.\n\n\nCCV\n\nOnce more, an invariably-recurring lesson of geological history, at\nwhatever point its study is taken up: the lesson of the almost infinite\nslowness of the modification of living forms. The lines of the pedigrees\nof living things break off almost before they begin to converge.\n\n\nCCVI\n\nYet another curious consideration. Let us suppose that one of the\nstupid, salamander-like Labyrinthodonts, which pottered, with much belly\nand little leg, like Falstaff in his old age, among the coal-forests,\ncould have had thinking power enough in his small brain to reflect upon\nthe showers of spores which kept on falling through years and centuries,\nwhile perhaps not one in ten million fulfilled its apparent purpose, and\nreproduced the organism which gave it birth: surely he might have been\nexcused for moralizing upon the thoughtless and wanton extravagance\nwhich Nature displayed in her operations.\n\nBut we have the advantage over our shovel-headed predecessor--or\npossibly ancestor--and can perceive that a certain vein of thrift runs\nthrough this apparent prodigality. Nature is never in a hurry, and seems\nto have had always before her eyes the adage, \"Keep a thing long enough,\nand you will find a use for it.\" She has kept her beds of coal many\nmillions of years without being able to find much use for them; she has\nsent them down beneath the sea, and the sea-beasts could make nothing\nof them; she has raised them up into dry land, and laid the black veins\nbare, and still, for ages and ages, there was no living thing on the\nface of the earth that could see any sort of value in them; and it was\nonly the other day, so to speak, that she turned a new creature out of\nher workshop, who by degrees acquired sufficient wits to make a fire,\nand then to discover that the black rock would burn.\n\nI suppose that nineteen hundred years ago, when Julius Caesar was good\nenough to deal with Britain as we have dealt with New Zealand, the\nprimaeval Briton, blue with cold and woad, may have known that the\nstrange black stone, of which he found lumps here and there in his\nwanderings, would burn, and so help to warm his body and cook his food.\nSaxon, Dane, and Norman swarmed into the land. The English people grew\ninto a powerful nation, and Nature still waited for a full return of\nthe capital she had invested in the ancient club-mosses. The eighteenth\ncentury arrived, and with it James Watt. The brain of that man was the\nspore out of which was developed the modern steam-engine, and all the\nprodigious trees and branches of modern industry which have grown out\nof this. But coal is as much an essential condition of this growth and\ndevelopment as carbonic acid is for that of a club-moss. Wanting coal,\nwe could not have smelted the iron needed to make our engines, nor have\nworked our engines when we had got them. But take away the engines,\nand the great towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire vanish like a dream.\nManufactures give place to agriculture and pasture, and not ten men can\nlive where now ten thousand are amply supported.\n\nThus, all this abundant wealth of money and of vivid life is Nature's\ninterest upon her investment in club-mosses, and the like, so long ago.\nBut what becomes of the coal which is burnt in yielding this interest?\nHeat comes out of it, light comes out of it; and if we could gather\ntogether all that goes up the chimney, and all that remains in the grate\nof a thoroughly-burnt coal-fire, we should find ourselves in possession\nof a quantity of carbonic acid, water, ammonia, and mineral matters,\nexactly equal in weight to the coal. But these are the very matters with\nwhich Nature supplied the club-mosses which made the coal. She is\npaid back principal and interest at the same time; and she straightway\ninvests the carbonic acid, the water, and the ammonia in new forms of\nlife, feeding with them the plants that now live. Thrifty Nature! Surely\nno prodigal, but most notable of housekeepers!\n\n\nCCVII\n\nHere, then, is a capital fact. The movements of the lobster are due to\nmuscular contractility. But why does a muscle contract at one time and\nnot at another? Why does one whole group of muscles contract when the\nlobster wishes to extend his tail and another group when he desires to\nbend it? What is it originates, directs, and controls the motive power?\n\nExperiment, the great instrument for the ascertainment of truth in\nphysical science, answers this question for us. In the head of the\nlobster there lies a small mass of that peculiar tissue which is known\nas nervous substance. Cords of similar matter connect this brain of\nthe lobster, directly or indirectly, with the muscles. Now, if these\ncommunicating cords are cut, the brain remaining entire, the power of\nexerting what we call voluntary motion m the parts below the section is\ndestroyed; and, on the other hand, if, the cords remaining entire, the\nbrain mass be destroyed, the same voluntary mobility is equally lost,\nwhence the inevitable conclusion is, that the power of originating these\nmotions resides in the brain and is propagated along the nervous cords.\n\nIn the higher animals the phenomena which attend this transmission have\nbeen investigated, and the exertion of the peculiar energy which resides\nin the nerves has been found to be accompanied by a disturbance of the\nelectrical state of their molecules.\n\nIf we could exactly estimate the signification of this disturbance;\nif we could obtain the value of a given exertion of nerve force by\ndetermining the quantity of electricity, or of heat, of which it is the\nequivalent; if we could ascertain upon what arrangement, or other\ncondition of the molecules of matter, the manifestation of the nervous\nand muscular energies depends (and doubtless science will some day or\nother ascertain these points), physiologists would have attained their\nultimate goal in this direction; they would have determined the relation\nof the motive force of animals to the other forms of force found in\nnature; and if the same process had been successfully performed for all\nthe operations which are carried on in, and by, the animal frame,\nphysiology would be perfect, and the facts of morphology and\ndistribution would be deducible from the laws which physiologists had\nestablished, combined with those determining the condition of the\nsurrounding universe.\n\n\nCCVIII\n\nThe object of lectures is, in the first place, to awaken the attention\nand excite the enthusiasm of the student; and this, I am sure, may\nbe effected to a far greater extent by the oral discourse and by\nthe personal influence of a respected teacher than in any other way.\nSecondly, lectures have the double use of guiding the student to the\nsalient points of a subject, and at the same time forcing him to attend\nto the whole of it, and not merely to that part which takes his fancy.\nAnd lastly, lectures afford the student the opportunity of seeking\nexplanations of those difficulties which will, and indeed ought to,\narise in the course of his studies.\n\n\nCCIX\n\nWhat books shall I read? is a question constantly put by the student to\nthe teacher. My reply usually is, \"None: write your notes out carefully\nand fully; strive to understand them thoroughly; come to me for the\nexplanation of anything you cannot understand; and I would rather you\ndid not distract your mind by reading.\" A properly composed course\nof lectures ought to contain fully as much matter as a student can\nassimilate in the time occupied by its delivery; and the teacher should\nalways recollect that his business is to feed and not to cram the\nintellect. Indeed, I believe that a student who gains from a course\nof lectures the simple habit of concentrating his attention upon a\ndefinitely limited series of facts, until they are thoroughly mastered,\nhas made a step of immeasurable importance.\n\n\nCCX\n\nHowever good lectures may be, and however extensive the course of\nreading-by which they are followed up, they are but accessories to the\ngreat instrument of scientific teaching--demonstration. If I insist\nunweariedly, nay fanatically, upon the importance of physical science as\nan educational agent, it is because the study of any branch of science,\nif properly conducted, appears to me to fill up a void left by all other\nmeans of education. I have the greatest respect and love for literature;\nnothing would grieve me more than to see literary training other than\na very prominent branch of education: indeed, I wish that real literary\ndiscipline were far more attended to than it is; but I cannot shut my\neyes to the fact that there is a vast difference between men who have\nhad a purely literary, and those who have had a sound scientific,\ntraining.\n\n\nCCXI\n\nIn the world of letters, learning and knowledge are one, and books\nare the source of both; whereas in science, as in life, learning and\nknowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books, is\nthe source of the latter.\n\n\nCCXII\n\nAll that literature has to bestow may be obtained by reading and by\npractical exercise in writing and in speaking; but I do not exaggerate\nwhen I say that none of the best gifts of science are to be won by these\nmeans. On the contrary, the great benefit which a scientific education\nbestows, whether as training or as knowledge, is dependent upon the\nextent to which the mind of the student is brought into immediate\ncontact with facts--upon the degree to which he learns the habit of\nappealing directly to Nature, and of acquiring through his senses\nconcrete images of those properties of things, which are, and always\nwill be, but approximatively expressed in human language. Our way of\nlooking at Nature, and of speaking about her, varies from year to\nyear; but a fact once seen, a relation of cause and effect, once\ndemonstratively apprehended, are possessions which neither change nor\npass away, but, on the contrary, form fixed centres, about which other\ntruths aggregate by natural affinity.\n\nTherefore, the great business of the scientific teacher is, to imprint\nthe fundamental, irrefragable facts of his science, not only by words\nupon the mind, but by sensible impressions upon tne eye, and ear, and\ntouch of the student, in so complete a manner, that every term used, or\nlaw enunciated, should afterwards call up vivid images of the particular\nstructural, or other, facts which furnished the demonstration of the\nlaw, or the illustration of the term.\n\n\nCCXIII\n\nWhat is the purpose of primary intellectual education? I apprehend\nthat its first object is to train the young in the use of those tools\nwherewith men extract knowledge from the ever-shifting; succession of\nphenomena which pass before their eyes; and that its second object is to\ninform them of the fundamental laws which have been found by experience\nto govern the course of things, so that they may not be turned out\ninto the world naked, defenceless, and a prey to the events they might\ncontrol.\n\nA boy is taught to read his own and other languages, in order that he\nmay have access to infinitely wider stores of knowledge than could ever\nbe opened to him by oral intercourse with his fellow men; he learns to\nwrite, that his means of communication with the rest of mankind may be\nindefinitely enlarged, and that he may record and store up the knowledge\nhe acquires. He is taught elementary mathematics, that he may understand\nall those relations of number and form, upon which the transactions of\nmen, associated in complicated societies, are built, and that he may\nhave some practice in deductive reasoning.\n\nAll these operations of reading, writing, and ciphering are intellectual\ntools, whose use should, before all things, be learned, and learned\nthoroughly; so that the youth may be enabled to make his life that which\nit ought to be, a continual progress in learning and in wisdom.\n\n\nCCXIV\n\nIn addition, primary education endeavours to fit a boy out with a\ncertain equipment of positive knowledge. He is taught the great laws\nof morality; the religion of his sect; so much history and geography as\nwill tell him where the great countries of the world are, what they are,\nand now they have become what they are.\n\nBut if I regard it closely, a curious reflection arises. I suppose that,\nfifteen hundred years ago, the child of any well-to-do Roman citizen\nwas taught just these same things; reading and writing in his own,\nand, perhaps, the Greek tongue; the elements of mathematics; and\nthe religion, morality, history, and geography current in his time.\nFurthermore, I do not think I err in affirming that, if such a Christian\nRoman boy, who had finished his education, could be transplanted into\none of our public schools, and pass through its course of instruction,\nhe would not meet with a single unfamiliar line of thought; amidst all\nthe new facts he would have to learn, not one would suggest a different\nmode of regarding the universe from that current in his own time.\n\nAnd yet surely there is some great difference between the civilisation\nof the fourth century and that of the nineteenth, and still more between\nthe intellectual habits and tone of thought of that day and this?\n\nAnd what has made this difference? I answer fearlessly--The prodigious\ndevelopment of physical science within the last two centuries.\n\n\nCCXV\n\nModern civilisation rests upon physical science; take away her gifts to\nour own country, and our position among the leading nations of the\nworld is gone to-morrow; for it is physical science only that makes\nintelligence and moral energy stronger than brute force.\n\n\nCCXVI\n\nThe whole of modern thought is steeped in science; it has made its way\ninto the works of our best poets, and even the mere man of letters, who\naffects to ignore and despise science, is unconsciously impregnated with\nher spirit, and indebted for his best products to her methods. I believe\nthat the greatest intellectual revolution mankind has yet seen is now\nslowly taking place by her agency. She is teaching the world that\nthe ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not\nauthority; she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she is\ncreating a firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and\nphysical laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of\nan intelligent being.\n\nBut of all this your old stereotyped system of education takes no note.\nPhysical science, its methods, its problems, and its difficulties, will\nmeet the poorest boy at every turn, and yet we educate him in such a\nmanner that he shall enter the world as ignorant of the existence of the\nmethods and facts of science as the day he was born. The modern world\nis full of artillery; and we turn out our children to do battle in it,\nequipped with the shield and sword of an ancient gladiator.\n\n\nCCXVII\n\nPosterity will cry shame on us if we do not remedy this deplorable state\nof things. Nay, if we live twenty years longer, our own consciences will\ncry shame on us.\n\nIt is my firm conviction that the only way to remedy it is to make the\nelements of physical science an integral part of primary education. I\nhave endeavoured to show you how that may be done for that branch of\nscience which it is my business to pursue; and I can but add, that I\nshould look upon the day when every schoolmaster throughout this land\nwas a centre of genuine, however rudimentary, scientific knowledge as an\nepoch in the history of the country.\n\nBut let me entreat you to remember my last words. Addressing myself to\nyou, as teachers, I would say, mere book learning in physical science is\na sham and a delusion--what you teach, unless you wish to be impostors,\nthat you must first know; and real knowledge in science means personal\nacquaintance with the facts, be they few or many.\n\n\nCCXVIII\n\nThe first distinct enunciation of the hypothesis that all living matter\nhas sprung from pre-existing living matter came from a contemporary,\nthough a junior, of Harvey, a native of that country, fertile in men\ngreat in all departments of human activity, which was to intellectual\nEurope, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, what Germany is in\nthe nineteenth. It was in Italy, and from Italian teachers, that Harvey\nreceived the most important part of his scientific education. And it\nwas a student trained in the same schools, Francesco Redi--a man of the\nwidest knowledge and most versatile abilities, distinguished alike as\nscholar, poet, physician and, naturalist--who, just two hundred and\ntwo years ago,* published his \"Esperienze intorno alia Generazione\ndegl'Insetti,\" and gave to the world the idea, the growth of which it\nis my purpose to trace. Redi's book went through five editions in twenty\nyears; and the extreme simplicity of his experiments, and the clearness\nof his arguments, gained for his views and for their consequences,\nalmost universal acceptance.\n\nRedi did not trouble himself much with speculative considerations,\nbut attacked particular cases of what was supposed to be \"spontaneous\ngeneration\" experimentally. Here are dead animals, or pieces of meat,\nsays he; I expose them to the air in hot weather, and in a few days they\nswarm with maggots. You tell me that these are generated in the dead\nflesh; but if I put similar bodies, while quite fresh, into a jar, and\ntie some fine gauze over the top of the jar, not a maggot makes its\nappearance, while the dead substances, nevertheless, putrefy just in the\nsame way as before. It is obvious, therefore, that the maggots are not\ngenerated by the corruption of the meat; and that the cause of their\nformation must be a something which is kept away by gauze. But gauze\nwill not keep away aeriform bodies, or fluids. This something must\ntherefore, exist in the form of solid particles too big to get through\nthe gauze. Nor is one long left in doubt what these solid particles are;\nfor the blow-flies, attracted by the odour of the meat, swarm round the\nvessel, and, urged by a powerful but in this case misleading instinct,\nlay eggs out of which maggots are immediately hatched, upon the gauze.\nThe conclusion, therefore, is unavoidable; the maggots are not generated\nby the meat, but the eggs which give rise to them are brought through\nthe air by the flies.\n\n     * These words were written in 1870.\n\nThese experiments seem almost childishly simple, and one wonders how\nit was that no one ever thought of them before. Simple as they are,\nhowever, they are worthy of the most careful study, for every piece of\nexperimental work since done, in regard to this subject, has been shaped\nupon the model furnished by the Italian philosopher. As the results\nof his experiments were the same, however varied the nature of the\nmaterials he used, it is not wonderful that there arose in Redi's mind\na presumption that, in all such cases of the seeming production of life\nfrom dead matter, the real explanation was the introduction of living\ngerms from without into that dead matter. And thus the hypothesis that\nliving matter always arises by the agency of pre-existing living matter,\ntook definite shape; and had, henceforward, a right to be considered and\na claim to be refuted, in each particular case, before the production of\nliving matter in any other way could be admitted by careful reasoners.\nIt will be necessary for me to refer to this hypothesis so frequently,\nthat, to save circumlocution, I shall call it the hypothesis of\n_Biogenesis_; and I shall term the contrary doctrine--that living matter\nmay be produced by not living matter--the hypothesis of _Abiogenesis_.\n\nIn the seventeenth century, as I have said, the latter was the dominant\nview, sanctioned alike by antiquity and by authority; and it is\ninteresting to observe that Redi did not escape the customary tax upon\na discoverer of having to defend himself against the charge of impugning\nthe authority of the Scriptures; for his adversaries declared that the\ngeneration of bees from the carcase of a dead lion is affirmed, in the\nBook of Judges, to have been the origin of the famous riddle with which\nSamson perplexed the Philistines:--\n\n     \"Out of the cater came forth meat,\n     And out of the strong came forth sweetness\"\n\n\nCCXIX\n\nThe great tragedy of Science--the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by\nan ugly fact.\n\n\nCCXX\n\nIt remains yet in the order of logic, though not of history, to show\nthat among these solid destructible particles there really do exist\ngerms capable of giving rise to the development of living forms in\nsuitable menstrua. This piece of work was done by M. Pasteur in those\nbeautiful researches which will ever render his name famous; and which,\nin spite of all attacks upon them, appear to me now, as they did\nseven years ago, to be models of accurate experimentation and logical\nreasoning. He strained air through cotton-wool, and found, as Schroeder\nand Dusch had done, that it contained nothing competent to give rise to\nthe development of life in fluids highly fitted for that purpose. But\nthe important further links in the chain of evidence added by Pasteur\nare three. In the first place he subjected to microscopic examination\nthe cottonwool which had served as strainer, and found that sundry\nbodies clearly recognisable as germs were among the solid particles\nstrained off. Secondly, he proved that these germs were competent to\ngive rise to living forms by simply sowing them in a solution fitted for\ntheir development. And, thirdly, he showed that the incapacity of air\nstrained through cotton-wool to give rise to life was not due to any\noccult change effected in the constituents of the air by the wool, by\nproving that the cotton-wool might be dispensed with altogether, and\nperfectly free access left between the exterior air and that in the\nexperimental flask. If the neck of the flask is drawn out into a tube\nand bent downwards; and if, after the contained fluid has been carefully\nboiled, the tube is heated sufficiently to destroy any germs which may\nbe present in the air which enters as the fluid cools, the apparatus may\nbe left to itself for any time and no life will appear in the fluid.\nThe reason is plain. Although there is free communication between the\natmosphere laden with germs and the germless air in the flask, contact\nbetween the two takes place only in the tube; and as the germs cannot\nfall upwards, and there are no currents, they never reach the interior\nof the flask. But if the tube be broken short off where it proceeds from\nthe flask, and free access be thus given to germs falling vertically out\nof the air, the fluid, which has remained clear and desert for months,\nbecomes, in a few days, turbid and full of life.\n\n\nCCXXI\n\nIn autumn it is not uncommon to see flies motionless upon a window-pane,\nwith a sort of magic circle, in white, drawn round them. On microscopic\nexamination, the magic circle is found to consist of innumerable spores,\nwhich have been thrown off in all directions by a minute fungus called\n_Empusa museae_ the spore-forming filaments of which stand out like a\npile of velvet from the body of the fly. These spore-forming filaments\nare connected with others which fill the interior of the fly's body\nlike so much fine wool, having eaten away and destroyed the creature's\nviscera. This is the full-grown condition of the _Empusa_. If traced\nback to its earliest stages, in flies which are still active, and to\nall appearance healthy, it is found to exist in the form of minute\ncorpuscles which float in the blood of the fly. These multiply and\nlengthen into filaments, at the expense of the fly's substance; and when\nthey have at last killed the patient, they grow out of its body and give\noff spores. Healthy flies shut up with diseased ones catch this mortal\ndisease, and perish like the others. A most competent observer, M. Cohn,\nwho studied the development of the _Empusa_ very carefully, was utterly\nunable to discover in what manner the smallest germs of the _Empusa_ got\ninto the fly. The spores could not be made to give rise to such germs by\ncultivation; nor were such germs discoverable in the air, or in the food\nof the fly. It looked exceedingly like a case of Abiogenesis, or, at any\nrate, of Xenogenesis; and it is only quite recently that the real course\nof events has been made out. It has been ascertained that when one of\nthe spores falls upon the body of a fly, it begins to germinate, and\nsends out a process which bores its way through the fly's skin; this,\nhaving reached the interior cavities of its body, gives off the minute\nfloating corpuscles which are the earliest stage of the _Empusa_. The\ndisease is \"contagious\", because a healthy fly coming in contact with a\ndiseased one, from which the spore-bearing filaments protrude, is pretty\nsure to carry off a spore or two. It is \"infectious\" because the spores\nbecome scattered about all sorts of matter m the neighbourhood of the\nslain flies. Silkworms are liable to many diseases; and, even before\n1853, a peculiar epizootic, frequently accompanied by the appearance\nof dark spots upon the skin (whence the name of \"Pebrine\" which it has\nreceived), had been noted for its mortality. But in the years following\n1853 this malady broke out with such extreme violence, that, in 1858,\nthe silk-crop was reduced to a third of the amount which it had reached\nin 1853; and, up till within the last year or two, it has never attained\nhalf the yield of 1853. This means not only that the great number of\npeople engaged in silk growing are some thirty millions sterling poorer\nthan they might have been; it means not only that high prices have had\nto be paid for imported silkworm eggs, and that, after investing his\nmoney in them, in paying for mulberry-leaves and for attendance, the\ncultivator has constantly seen his silkworms perish and himself plunged\nin ruin; but it means that the looms of Lyons have lacked employment,\nand that, for years, enforced idleness and misery have been the\nportion of a vast population which, in former days, was industrious and\nwell-to-do.\n\nIn reading the Report made by M. de Quatrefages in 1859, it is\nexceedingly interesting to observe that his elaborate study of the\nPebrine forced the conviction upon his mind that, in its mode of\noccurrence and propagation, the disease of the silkworm is, in every\nrespect, comparable to the cholera among mankind. But it differs\nfrom the cholera, and so far is a more formidable malady, in being\nhereditary, and in being, under some circumstances, contagious as well\nas infectious.\n\nThe Italian naturalist, Filippi, discovered in the blood of the\nsilkworms affected by this strange disorder a multitude of cylindrical\ncorpuscles, each about 1/6000th of an inch long. These have been\ncarefully studied by Lebert, and named by him _Panhistophyton_; for the\nreason that in subjects in which the disease is strongly developed, the\ncorpuscles swarm in every tissue and organ of the body, and even pass\ninto the undeveloped eggs of the female moth. But are these corpuscles\ncauses, or mere concomitants, of the disease? Some naturalists took\none view and some another; and it was not until the French Government,\nalarmed by the continued ravages of the malady, and the inefficiency of\nthe remedies which had been suggested, despatched M. Pasteur to\nstudy it, that the question received its final settlement; at a great\nsacrifice, not only of the time and peace of mind of that eminent\nphilosopher, but, I regret to have to add, of his health.\n\nBut the sacrifice has not been in vain. It is now certain that this\ndevastating, cholera-like Pebrine is the effect of the growth and\nmultiplication of the _Panhistophyton_ in the silkworm. It is contagious\nand infectious, because the corpuscles of the _Panhistophyton_ pass away\nfrom the bodies of the diseased caterpillars, directly or indirectly, to\nthe alimentary canal of healthy silkworms in their neighbourhood; it\nis hereditary because the corpuscles enter into the eggs while they are\nbeing formed, and consequently are carried within them when they\nare laid; and for this reason, also? it presents the very singular\npeculiarity of being inherited only on the mother's side. There is not a\nsingle one of all the apparently capricious and unaccountable phenomena\npresented by the Pebrine, but has received its explanation from the\nfact that the disease is the result of the presence of the microscopic\norganism, _Panhistophyton_.\n\n\nCCXXII\n\nI commenced this Address by asking you to follow me in an attempt to\ntrace the path which has been followed by a scientific idea, in its long\nand slow progress from the position of a probable hypothesis to that\nof an established law of nature. Our survey has not taken us into very\nattractive regions; it has lain, chiefly, in a land flowing with the\nabominable, and peopled with mere grubs and mouldiness. And it may\nbe imagined with what smiles and shrugs, practical and serious\ncontemporaries of Redi and of Spallanzani may have commented on the\nwaste of their high abilities in toiling at the solution of problems\nwhich, though curious enough in themselves, could be of no conceivable\nutility to mankind.\n\nNevertheless, you will have observed that before we had travelled very\nfar upon our road, there appeared, on the right hand and on the left,\nfields laden with a harvest of golden grain, immediately convertible\ninto those things which the most solidly practical men will admit to\nhave value--viz., money and life.\n\nThe direct loss to France caused by the Pebrine in seventeen years\ncannot be estimated at less than fifty millions sterling; and if we\nadd to this what Redi's idea, in Pasteur's hands, has done for the\nwine-grower and for the vinegar-maker; and try to capitalise its value,\nwe shall find that it will go a long way towards repairing; the money\nlosses caused by the frightful and calamitous war of this autumn\n(1870). And as to the equivalent of Redi's thought in life, how can we\noverestimate the value of that knowledge of the nature of epidemic\nand epizootic diseases, and consequently of the means of checking, or\neradicating them, the dawn of which has assuredly commenced?\n\nLooking back no further than ten years, it is possible to select\nthree (1863, 1864, and 1869) in which the total number of deaths from\nscarlet-fever alone amounted to ninety thousand. That is the return of\nkilled, the maimed and disabled being left out of sight Why, it is to be\nhoped that the list of killed in the present bloodiest of all wars will\nnot amount to more than this! But the facts which I have placed before\nyou must leave the least sanguine without a doubt that the nature and\nthe causes of this scourge will, one day, be as well understood as\nthose of the Pebrine are now; and that the long-suffered massacre of our\ninnocents will come to an end.\n\nAnd thus mankind will have one more admonition that \"the people perish\nfor lack of knowledge\"; and that the alleviation of the miseries, and\nthe promotion of the welfare, of men must be sought, by those who will\nnot lose their pains, in that diligent, patient, loving study of all the\nmultitudinous aspects of Nature, the results of which constitute exact\nknowledge, or Science.\n\n\nCCXXIII\n\nI find three, more or less contradictory, systems of geological thought,\neach of which might fairly enough claim these appellations, standing\nside by side in Britain. I shall call one of them Catastrophisim another\nUniformitarianism, the third Evolutionism; and I shall try briefly\nto sketch the characters of each, that you may say whether the\nclassification is, or is not, exhaustive.\n\nBy Catastrophism I mean any form of geological speculation which, in\norder to account for the phenomena of geology supposes the operation of\nforces different in their nature, or immeasurably different in power,\nfrom those which we at present see in action in the universe.\n\nThe Mosaic cosmogony is, in this sense, catastrophic, because it assumes\nthe operation of extra-natural power. The doctrine of violent upheavals,\n_debacles_ and cataclysms in general, is catastrophic, so far as it\nassumes that these were brought about by causes which have now no\nparallel. There was a time when catastrophism might, pre-eminently, have\nclaimed the title of \"British popular geology\"; and assuredly it has\nyet many adherents, and reckons among its supporters some of the most\nhonoured members of this Society.\n\nBy Uniformitarianism I mean especially the teaching of Hutton and of\nLyell.\n\nThat great though incomplete work, \"The Theory of the Earth\", seems to\nme to be one of the most remarkable contributions to geology which is\nrecorded in the annals of the science. So far as the not-living world\nis concerned, uniformitarianism lies there, not only in germ, but in\nblossom and fruit.\n\nIf one asks how it is that Hutton was led to entertain views so far\nin advance of those prevalent in his time, in some respects; while, in\nothers, they seem almost curiously limited, the answer appears to me to\nbe plain.\n\nHutton was in advance of the geological speculation of his time,\nbecause, in the first place, he had amassed a vast store of knowledge\nof the facts of geology, gathered by personal observation in travels of\nconsiderable extent; and because, in the second place, he was thoroughly\ntrained in the physical and chemical science of his day, and thus\npossessed, as much as any one in his time could possess it, the\nknowledge which is requisite for the just interpretation of geological\nphenomena, and the habit of thought which fits a man for scientific\ninquiry.\n\nIt is to this thorough scientific training that I ascribe Hutton's\nsteady and persistent refusal to look to other causes than those now in\noperation for the explanation of geological phenomena.\n\nThe internal heat of the earth, the elevation and depression of\nits crust, its belchings forth of vapours, ashes, and lava, are its\nactivities, in as strict a sense as are warmth and the movements and\nproducts of respiration the activities of an animal. The phenomena of\nthe seasons, of the trade winds, of the Gulf-stream, are as much the\nresults of the reaction between these inner activities and outward\nforces as are the budding of the leaves in spring and their falling\nin autumn the effects of the interaction between the organisation of a\nplant and the solar light and heat. And, as the study of the activities\nof the living being is called its physiology, so are these phenomena\nthe subject-matter of an analogous telluric physiology, to which we\nsometimes give the name of meteorology, sometimes that of physical\ngeography, sometimes that of geology. Again, the earth has a place in\nspace and in time, and relations to other bodies in both these respects,\nwhich constitute its distribution. This subject is usually left to the\nastronomer; but a knowledge of its broad outlines seems to me to be an\nessential constituent of the stock of geological ideas.\n\n\nCCXXIV\n\nAll that can be ascertained concerning the structure succession of\nconditions, actions, and position m space of the earth, is the matter\nof fact of its natural history. But? as in biology, there remains the\nmatter of reasoning from these facts to their causes, which is just\nas much science as the other, and indeed more; and this constitutes\ngeological aetiology.\n\n\nCCXXV\n\nI suppose that it would be very easy to pick holes in the details of\nKant's speculations, whether cosmo-logical, or specially telluric, in\ntheir application. But for all that, he seems to me to have been the\nfirst person to frame a complete system of geological speculation by\nfounding the doctrine of evolution.\n\nI have said that the three schools of geological speculation which I\nhave termed Catastrophism, Uniformitarianism, and Evolutionism, are\ncommonly supposed to be antagonistic to one another; and I presume it\nwill have become obvious that in my belief, the last is destined to\nswallow up the other two. But it is proper to remark that each of the\nlatter has kept alive the tradition of precious truths.\n\nTo my mind there appears to be no sort of necessary theoretical\nantagonism between Catastrophism and Uniformitarianism. On the contrary,\nit is very conceivable that catastrophes may be part and parcel of\nuniformity. Let me illustrate my case by analogy. The working of a clock\nis a model of uniform action; good time-keeping means uniformity of\naction. But the striking of the clock is essentially a catastrophe;\nthe hammer might be made to blow up a barrel of gunpowder, or turn on\na deluge of water; and, by proper arrangement, the clock, instead of\nmarking the hours, might strike at all sorts of irregular periods,\nnever twice alike, in the intervals, force, or number of its blows.\nNevertheless, all these irregular, and apparently lawless, catastrophes\nwould be the result of an absolutely uniformitarian action; and we might\nhave two schools of clock-theorists, one studying the hammer and the\nother the pendulum.\n\n\nCCXXVI\n\nMathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which\ngrinds your stuff of any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you\nget out depends upon what you put in; and as the grandest mill in tne\nworld will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulae\nwill not get a definite result out of loose data.\n\n\nCCXXVII\n\nThe motive of the drama of human life is the necessity, laid upon\nevery man who comes into the world, of discovering the mean between\nself-assertion and self-restraint suited to his character and his\ncircumstances. And the eternally tragic aspect of the drama lies in\nthis: that the problem set before us is one the elements of which can\nbe but imperfectly known, and of which even an approximately right\nsolution rarely presents itself, until that stern critic, aged\nexperience, has been furnished with ample justification for venting his\nsarcastic humour upon the irreparable blunders we have already made.\n\n\nCCXXVIII\n\nThat which endures is not one or another association of living forms,\nbut the process of which the cosmos is the product, and of which these\nare among the transitory expressions. And in the living world, one of\nthe most characteristic features of this cosmic process is the struggle\nfor existence, the competition of each with all, the result of which is\nthe selection, that is to say, the survival of those forms which, on the\nwhole, are best adapted to the conditions which at any period obtain;\nand which are therefore, in that respect, and only in that respect, the\nfittest. The acme reached by the cosmic process in the vegetation of\nthe downs is seen in the turf, with its weed and gorse. Under the\nconditions, they have come out of the struggle victorious; and, by\nsurviving, have proved that they are the fittest to survive.\n\n\nCCXXIX\n\nAs a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree\nfrom its seed; or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation\nand all other kinds of supernatural intervention. As the expression of\na fixed order, every stage of which is the effect of causes operating\naccording to definite rules, the conception of evolution no less\nexcludes that of chance. It is very desirable to remember that evolution\nis not an explanation of the cosmic process, but merely a generalized\nstatement of the method and results of that process. And, further, that,\nif there is proof that the cosmic process was set going by any agent,\nthen that agent will be the creator of it and of all its products,\nalthough, supernatural intervention may remain strictly excluded from\nits further course.\n\n\nCCXXX\n\nAll plants and animals exhibit the tendency to vary, the causes of which\nhave yet to be ascertained; it is the tendency of the conditions of\nlife, at any given time, while favouring the existence of the variations\nbest adapted to them, to oppose that of the rest and thus to exercise\nselection; and all living things tend to multiply without limit, while\nthe means of support are limited; the obvious cause of which is the\nproduction of offspring more numerous than their progenitors, but with\nactual expectation of life in the actuarial sense. Without tne first\ntendency there could be no evolution. Without the second, there would be\nno good reason why one variation should disappear and another take its\nplace; that is to say, there would be no selection. Without the third,\nthe struggle for existence, the agent of the selective process in the\nstate of nature, would vanish.\n\n\nCCXXXI\n\nThe faith which is born of knowledge finds its object in an eternal\norder, bringing forth ceaseless chance, through endless time, in endless\nspace; the manifestations of the cosmic energy alternating between\nphases of potentiality and phases of explication.\n\n\nCCXXXII\n\nWith all their enormous differences in natural endowment, men agree in\none thing, and that is their innate desire to enjoy the pleasures and\nescape the pains of life; and, in short, to do nothing but that which\nit pleases them to do, without the least reference to the welfare of the\nsociety into which they are born. That is their inheritance (the reality\nat the bottom of the doctrine of original sin) from the long series of\nancestors, human and semi-human and brutal, in whom the strength of this\ninnate tendency to self-assertion was the condition of victory in the\nstruggle for existence. That is the reason of the _aviditas vitae_--the\ninsatiable hunger for enjoyment--of all mankind, which is one of the\nessential conditions of success in the war with the state of nature\noutside; and yet the sure agent of the destruction of society if allowed\nfree play within.\n\n\nCCXXXIII\n\nThe check upon this free play of self-assertion, or natural liberty,\nwhich is the necessary condition for the origin of human society, is the\nproduct of organic necessities of a different land from those upon\nwhich the constitution of the hive depends. One of these is the mutual\naffection of parent and offspring, intensified by the long infancy of\nthe human species. But the most important is the tendency, so strongly\ndeveloped in man, to reproduce in himself actions and feelings similar\nto, or correlated with, those of other men. Man is the most consummate\nof all mimics in the animal world; none but himself can draw or model;\nnone comes near him in the scope, variety, and exactness of vocal\nimitation; none is such a master of gesture; while he seems to be\nimpelled thus to imitate for the pure pleasure of it. And there is no\nsuch another emotional chameleon. By a purely reflex operation of the\nmind, we take the hue of passion of those who are about us, or, it may\nbe, the complementary colour. It is not by any conscious \"putting one's\nself in the place\" of a joyful or a suffering person that the state of\nmind we call sympathy usually arises; indeed, it is often contrary to\none's sense of right, and in spite of one's will, that \"fellow-feeling\nmakes us wondrous kind,\" or the reverse. However complete may be the\nindifference to public opinion, in a cool, intellectual view, of the\ntraditional sage, it has not yet been my fortune to meet with any actual\nsage who took its hostile manifestations with entire equanimity. Indeed,\nI doubt if the philosopher lives, or ever has lived, who could know\nhimself to be heartily despised by a street boy without some irritation.\nAnd, though one cannot justify Haman for wishing to hang Mordecai on\nsuch a very high gibbet, yet, really, the consciousness of the Vizier of\nAhasuerus, as he went in and out of the gate, that this obscure Jew had\nno respect for him, must have been very annoying.\n\nIt is needful only to look around us, to see that the greatest restrainer\nof the anti-social tendencies of men is fear, not of the law, but of the\nopinion of their fellows. The conventions of honour bad men who\nbreak legal, moral, and religious bonds; and, while people endure the\nextremity of physical pain rather than part with life, shame drives the\nweakest to suicide.\n\nEvery forward step of social progress brings men into closer relations\nwith their fellows, and increases the importance of the pleasures and\npains derived from sympathy. We judge the acts of others by our own\nsympathies, and we judge our own acts by the sympathies of others, every\nday and all day long, from childhood upwards, until associations, as\nindissoluble as those of language, are formed between certain acts and\nthe feelings of approbation or disapprobation. It becomes impossible to\nimagine some acts without disapprobation, or others without approbation\nof the actor, whether he be one's self or anyone else. We come to think\nin the acquired dialect of morals. An artificial personality, the \"man\nwithin,\" as Adam Smith calls conscience, is built up beside the natural\npersonality. He is the watchman of society, charged to restrain the\nantisocial tendencies of the natural man within the limits required by\nsocial welfare.\n\n\nCCXXXIV\n\nI have termed this evolution of the feelings out of which the primitive\nbonds of human society are so largely forged, into the organized and\npersonified sympathy we call conscience, the ethical process. So far as\nit tends to make any human society more efficient in the struggle for\nexistence with the state of nature, or with other societies, it works\nin harmonious contrast with the cosmic process. But it is none the less\ntrue that, since law and morals are restraints upon the struggle for\nexistence between men in society, the ethical process is in opposition\nto the principle of the cosmic process, and tends to the suppression of\nthe qualities best fitted for success in that struggle.\n\n\nCCXXXV\n\nMoralists of all ages and of all faiths, attending only to the relations\nof men towards one another in an ideal society, have agreed upon\nthe \"golden rule,\" \"Do as you would be done by.\" In other words, let\nsympathy be your guide; put yourself in the place of the man towards\nwhom your action is directed; and do to him what you would like to have\ndone to yourself under the circumstances. However much one may admire\nthe generosity of such a rule of conduct; however confident one may be\nthat average men may be thoroughly depended upon not to carry it out to\nits full logical consequences; it is nevertheless desirable to recognise\nthe fact that these consequences are incompatible with the existence\nof a civil state, under any circumstances of this world which have\nobtained, or, so far as one can see, are likely to come to pass.\n\nFor I imagine there can be no doubt that the great desire of every\nwrongdoer is to escape from the painful consequences of his actions. If\nI put myself in the place of the man who has robbed me, I find that I\nam possessed by an exceeding desire not to be fined or imprisoned; if\nin that of the man who has smitten me on one cheek, I contemplate with\nsatisfaction the absence of any worse result than the turning of the\nother cheek for like treatment. Strictly observed, the \"golden rule\"\ninvolves the negation of law by the refusal to put it in motion against\nlaw-breakers; and, as regards the external relations of a polity, it is\nthe refusal to continue the struggle for existence. It can be obeyed,\neven partially, only under the protection of a society which repudiates\nit without such shelter the followers of the \"golden rule\" may indulge\nin hopes of heaven, but they must reckon with the certainty that other\npeople will be masters of the earth.\n\nWhat would become of the garden if the gardener treated all the weeds\nand slugs and birds and trespassers as he would like to be treated if he\nwere in their place?\n\n\nCCXXXVI\n\nIn a large proportion of cases, crime and pauperism have nothing to do\nwith heredity; but are the consequence, partly, of circumstances\nand, partly, of the possession of qualities, which, under different\nconditions of life, might have excited esteem and even admiration.\nIt was a shrewd man of the world who, in discussing sewage problems,\nremarked that dirt is riches in the wrong; place; and that sound\naphorism has moral applications. The benevolence and open-handed\ngenerosity which adorn a rich man may make a pauper of a poor one; the\nenergy and courage to which the successful soldier owes his rise, the\ncool and daring subtlety to which the great financier owes his fortune,\nmay very easily, under unfavourable conditions, lead their possessors to\nthe gallows, or to the hulks. Moreover, it is fairly probable that the\nchildren of a \"failure\" will receive from their other parent just that\nlittle modification of character which makes all the difference. I\nsometimes wonder whether people, who talk so freely about extirpating\nthe unfit, ever dispassionately consider their own history. Surely, one\nmust be very \"fit\" indeed not to know of an occasion, or perhaps two, in\none's life, when it would have been only too easy to qualify for a place\namong the \"unfit.\"\n\n\nCCXXXVII\n\nIn the struggle for the means of enjoyment, the qualities which ensure\nsuccess are energy, industry, intellectual capacity, tenacity of\npurpose, and, at least as much sympathy as is necessary to make a\nman understand the feelings of his fellows. Were there none of those\nartificial arrangements by which fools and knaves are kept at the top\nof society instead of sinking to their natural place at the bottom, the\nstruggle for the means of enjoyment would ensure a constant circulation\nof the human units of the social compound, from the bottom to the top\nand from the top to the bottom. The survivors of the contest, those\nwho continued to form the great bulk of the polity, would not be those\n\"fittest\" who got to the very top, but the great body of the moderately\n\"fit,\" whose numbers and superior propagative power enable them always\nto swamp the exceptionally endowed minority.\n\nI think it must be obvious to every one that, whether we consider the\ninternal or the external interests of society, it is desirable they\nshould be in the hands of those who are endowed with the largest\nshare of energy, of industry, of intellectual capacity, of tenacity of\npurpose, while they are not devoid of sympathetic humanity; and, in so\nfar as the struggle for the means of enjoyment tends to place such men\nin possession of wealth and influence, it is a process which tends\nto the good of society. But the process, as we have seen, has no real\nresemblance to that which adapts living beings to current conditions\nin the state of nature; nor any to the artificial selection of the\nhorticulturist.\n\n\nCCXXXVIII\n\nEven should the whole human race be absorbed in one vast polity, within\nwhich \"absolute political justice\" reigns, the struggle for existence\nwith the state of nature outside it, and the tendency to the return of\nthe struggle within, in consequence of over-multiplication, will remain;\nand, unless men's inheritance from the ancestors who fought a good fight\nin the state of nature, their dose of original sin, is rooted out\nby some method at present unrevealed, at any rate to disbelievers in\nsupernaturalism, every child born into the world will still bring with\nhim the instinct of unlimited self-assertion. He will have to learn\nthe lesson of self-restraint and renunciation. But the practice of\nself-restraint and renunciation is not happiness, though it may be\nsomething much better.\n\nThat man, as a \"political animal,\" is susceptible of a vast amount of\nimprovement, by education, by instruction, and by the application of his\nintelligence to the adaptation of tne conditions of life to his higher\nneeds, I entertain not the slightest doubt. But, so long as he remains\nliable to error, intellectual or moral; so long as he is compelled to be\nperpetually on guard against the cosmic forces, whose ends are not\nhis ends, without and within himself; so long as he is haunted\nby inexpugnable memories and hopeless aspirations; so long as the\nrecognition of his intellectual limitations forces him to acknowledge\nhis incapacity to penetrate the mystery of existence; the prospect of\nattaining untroubled happiness, or of a state which can, even remotely,\ndeserve the title of perfection, appears to me to be as misleading an\nillusion as ever was dangled before the eyes of poor humanity. And there\nhave been many of them.\n\nThat which lies before the human race is a constant struggle to maintain\nand improve, in opposition to the State of Nature, the State of Art of\nan organized polity; in which, and by which, man may develop a worthy\ncivilization, capable of maintaining and constantly improving itself,\nuntil the evolution of our globe shall have entered so far upon its\ndownward course that the cosmic process resumes its sway; and, once\nmore, the State of Nature prevails over the surface of our planet.\n\n\nCCXXXIX\n\nFrom very low forms up to the highest--in the animal no less than in the\nvegetable kingdom--the process of life presents the same appearance of\ncyclical evolution. Nay, we have but to cast our eyes over the rest of\nthe world and cyclical change presents itself on all sides. It meets us\nin the water that flows to the sea and returns to the springs; in the\nheavenly bodies that wax and wane, go and return to their places; in the\ninexorable sequence of the ages of man's life; in that successive rise,\napogee, and fall of dynasties and of states which is the most prominent\ntopic of civil history.\n\n\nCCXL\n\nAs no man fording a swift stream can dip his foot twice into the same\nwater, so no man can, with exactness, affirm of anything in the sensible\nworld that it is. As he utters the words, nay, as he thinks them, the\npredicate ceases to be applicable; the present has become the past; the\n\"is\" should be \"was.\" And the more we learn of the nature of things, the\nmore evident is it that what we call rest is only unperceived activity;\nthat seeming peace is silent but strenuous battle. In every part, at\nevery moment, the state of the cosmos is the expression of a transitory\nadjustment of contending forces; a scene of strife, in which all the\ncombatants fall in turn. What is true of each part is true of the whole.\nNatural knowledge tends more and more to the conclusion that \"all the\nchoir of heaven and furniture of the earth\" are the transitory forms of\nparcels of cosmic substance wending along the road of evolution, from\nnebulous potentiality, through endless growths of sun and planet and\nsatellite; through all varieties of matter; through infinite diversities\nof life and thought; possibly, through modes of being of which we\nneither have a conception, nor are competent to form any, back to\nthe indefinable latency from which they arose. Thus the most obvious\nattribute of the cosmos is its impermanence. It assumes the aspect not\nso much of a permanent entity as of a changeful process, in which naught\nendures save the flow of energy and the rational order which pervades\nit.\n\n\nCCLXI\n\nMan, the animal, in fact, has worked his way to the headship of the\nsentient world, and has become the superb animal which he is in virtue\nof his success in the struggle for existence. The conditions having\nbeen of a certain order, man's organization has adjusted itself to them\nbetter than mat of his competitors in the cosmic strife. In the case of\nmankind, the self-assertion, the unscrupulous seizing upon all that\ncan be grasped, the tenacious holding of all that can be kept, which\nconstitute the essence of the struggle for existence, have answered.\nFor his successful progress, throughout the savage state, man has been\nlargely indebted to those qualities which he shares with the ape and\nthe tiger; his exceptional physical organization; his cunning, his\nsociability, his curiosity, and his imitativeness; his ruthless and\nferocious destructiveness when his anger is roused by opposition.\n\nBut, in proportion as men have passed from anarchy to social\norganization, and in proportion as civilization has grown in worth,\nthese deeply ingrained serviceable qualities have become defects. After\nthe manner of successful persons, civilized man would gladly kick down\nthe ladder by which he has climbed. He would be only too pleased to see\n\"the ape and tiger die.\" But they decline to suit his convenience; and\nthe unwelcome intrusion of these boon companions of his hot youth into\nthe ranged existence of civil life adds pains and griefs, innumerable\nand immeasurably great, to those which the cosmic process necessarily\nbrings on the mere animal. In fact, civilized man brands all these ape\nand tiger promptings with the name of sins; he punishes many of the acts\nwhich flow from them as crimes; and, in extreme cases, he does his best\nto put an end to the survival of the fittest of former days by axe and\nrope.\n\n\nCCXLII\n\nIn Hindustan, as in Ionia, a period of relatively high and tolerably\nstable civilization had succeeded long ages of semi-barbarism and\nstruggle. Out of wealth and security had come leisure and refinement,\nand, close at their heels, had followed the malady of thought. To\nthe struggle for bare existence, which never ends, though it may be\nalleviated and partially disguised for a fortunate few, succeeded the\nstruggle to make existence intelligible and to bring the order of things\ninto harmony with the moral sense of man, which also never ends, but,\nfor the thinking few, becomes keener with every increase of knowledge\nand with every step towards the realization of a worthy ideal of life.\n\nTwo thousand five hundred years ago the value of civilization was as\napparent as it is now; then, as now, it was obvious that only in the\ngarden of an orderly polity can the finest fruits humanity is capable of\nbearing be produced. But it had also become evident that the blessings\nof culture were not unmixed. The garden was apt to turn into a hothouse.\nThe stimulation of the senses, the pampering of the emotions, endlessly\nmultiplied the sources of pleasure. The constant widening of the\nintellectual field indefinitely extended the range of that especially\nhuman faculty of looking before and after, which adds to the fleeting\npresent those old and new worlds of the past and the future, wherein men\ndwell the more the higher their culture. But that very sharpening of the\nsense and that subtle refinement of emotion, which brought such a wealth\nof pleasures, were fatally attended by a proportional enlargement of the\ncapacity for suffering; and the divine faculty of imagination, while it\ncreated new heavens and new earths, provided them with the corresponding\nhells of futile regret for the past and morbid anxiety for the future.\n\n\nCCXLIII\n\nOne of the oldest and most important elements in such systems is the\nconception of justice. Society is impossible unless those who are\nassociated agree to observe certain rules of conduct towards one\nanother; its stability depends on the steadiness with which they abide\nby that agreement; and, so far as they waver, that mutual trust which is\nthe bond of society is weakened or destroyed. Wolves could not hunt in\npacks except for the real, though unexpressed, understanding that they\nshould not attack one another during the chase. The most rudimentary\npolity is a pack of men living under the like tacit, or expressed,\nunderstanding; and having made the very important advance upon wolf\nsociety, that they agree to use the force of the whole body against\nindividuals who violate it and in favour of those who observe it. This\nobservance of a common understanding, with the consequent distribution\nof punishments and rewards according to accepted rules, received the\nname of justice, while the contrary was called injustice. Early ethics\ndid not take much note of the animus of the violator of the rules.\nBut civilization could not advance far without the establishment of a\ncapital distinction between the case of involuntary and that of wilful\nmisdeed; between a merely wrong action and a guilty one.\n\nAnd, with increasing refinement of moral appreciation, the problem of\ndesert, which arises out of this distinction, acquired more and more\ntheoretical and practical importance. If life must be given for life,\nyet it was recognized that the unintentional slayer did not altogether\ndeserve death; and, by a sort of compromise between the public and the\nprivate conception of justice, a sanctuary was provided in which he\nmight take refuge from the avenger of blood.\n\nThe idea of justice thus underwent a gradual sublimation from punishment\nand reward according to acts, to punishment and reward according to\ndesert; or, in other words, according to motive. Righteousness, that is,\naction from right motive, not only became synonymous with justice, but\nthe positive constituent of innocence and the very heart of goodness.\n\n\nCCXLIV\n\nEveryday experience familiarizes us with the facts which are grouped\nunder the name of heredity. Every one of us bears upon him obvious marks\nof his parentage, perhaps of remoter relationships. More particularly,\nthe sum of tendencies to act in a certain, way, which we call\n\"character,\" is often to be traced through a long series of progenitors\nand collaterals. So we may justly say that this \"character\"--this moral\nand intellectual essence of a man--does veritably pass over from\none fleshy tabernacle to another, ana does really transmigrate from\ngeneration to generation. In the new-born infant the character of\nthe stock lies latent, and the Ego is little more than a bundle\nof potentialities. But, very early, these become actualities; from\nchildhood to age they manifest themselves in dulness or brightness,\nweakness or strength, viciousness or uprightness; and with each feature\nmodified by confluence with another character, if by nothing else, the\ncharacter passes on to its incarnation in new bodies.\n\n\nCCXLV\n\nOnly one rule of conduct could be based upon the remarkable theory of\nwhich I have endeavoured to give a reasoned outline. It was folly\nto continue to exist when an overplus of pain was certain; and the\nprobabilities in favour of the increase of misery with the prolongation\nof existence, were so overwhelming. Slaying the body only made matters\nworse; there was nothing for it but to slay the soul by the voluntary\narrest of all its activities. Property, social ties, family affections,\ncommon companionship, must be abandoned; the most natural appetites,\neven that for food, must be suppressed, or at least minimized; until all\nthat remained of a man was the impassive, extenuated, mendicant monk,\nself-hypnotised into cataleptic trances, which the deluded mystic took\nfor foretastes of the final union with Brahma.\n\n\nCCXLVI\n\nIf the cosmos is the effect of an immanent, omnipotent, and infinitely\nbeneficent cause, the existence in it of real evil, still less of\nnecessarily inherent evil, is plainly inadmissible. Yet the universal\nexperience of mankind testified then, as now, that, whether we look\nwithin us or without us, evil stares us in the face on all sides; that\nif anything is real, pain and sorrow and wrong are realities.\n\nIt would be a new thing in history if _a priori_ philosophers were\ndaunted by the factious opposition of experience; and the Stoics were\nthe last men to allow themselves to be beaten by mere facts. \"Give me a\ndoctrine and I will find the reasons for it,\" said Chrysippus. So they\nperfected, if they did not invent, that ingenious and plausible form of\npleading, the Theodicy; for the purpose of showing firstly, that\nthere is no such thing as evil; secondly, that if there is, it is the\nnecessary correlate of good; and, moreover, that it is either due to our\nown fault, or inflicted for our benefit.\n\n\nCCXLVII\n\nUnfortunately, it is much easier to shut one's eyes to good than to\nevil. Pain and sorrow knock at our doors more loudly than pleasure\nand happiness; and the prints of their heavy footsteps are less easily\neffaced.\n\n\nCCXLVIII\n\nIn the language of the Stoa, \"Nature\" was a word of many meanings. There\nwas the \"Nature\" of the cosmos, and the \"Nature\" of man. In the latter,\nthe animal \"nature,\" which man shares with a moiety of the living part\nof the cosmos, was distinguished from a higher \"nature.\" Even in\nthis higher nature there were grades of rank. The logical faculty is an\ninstrument which may be turned to account for any purpose. The passions\nand the emotions are so closely tied to tne lower nature that they may\nbe considered to be pathological, rather than normal, phenomena. The one\nsupreme, hegemonic, faculty, which constitutes the essential \"nature\"\nof man, is most nearly represented by that which, in the language of a\nlater philosophy, has been called the pure reason. It is this \"nature\"\nwhich holds up the ideal of the supreme good and demands absolute\nsubmission of the will to its behests. It is this which commands all men\nto love one another, to return good for evil, to regard one another as\nfellow-citizens of one great state. Indeed, seeing that the progress\ntowards perfection of a civilised state, or polity, depends on the\nobedience of its members to these commands, the Stoics sometimes termed\nthe pure reason the \"political\" nature. Unfortunately, the sense of the\nadjective has undergone so much modification that the application of it\nto that which commands the sacrifice of self to the common good would\nnow sound almost grotesque.\n\n\nCCXLIX\n\nThe majority of us, I apprehend, profess neither pessimism nor optimism.\nWe hold that the world is neither so good, nor so bad, as it conceivably\nmight be; and, as most of us have reason, now and again, to discover\nthat it can be. Those who have failed to experience the joys that make\nlife worth living are, probably, in as small a minority as those who\nhave never known the griefs that rob existence of its savour and turn\nits richest fruits into mere dust and ashes.\n\n\nCCL\n\nThere is another fallacy which appears to me to pervade the so-called\n\"ethics of evolution.\" It is the notion that because, on the whole,\nanimals and plants have advanced in perfection of organization by\nmeans of the struggle for existence and the consequent \"survival of the\nfittest\"; therefore men in society, men as ethical beings, must look to\nthe same process to help them towards perfection. I suspect that this\nfallacy has arisen out of the unfortunate ambiguity of the phrase\n\"survival of the fittest.\" \"Fittest\" has a connotation of \"best\"; and\nabout \"best\" there hangs a moral flavour. In cosmic nature, however,\nwhat is \"fittest\" depends upon the conditions. Long since, I ventured to\npoint out that if our hemisphere were to cool again, the survival of\nthe fittest might bring about, in the vegetable kingdom, a population\nof more and more stunted and humbler and humbler organisms, until the\n\"fittest\" that survived might be nothing but lichens, diatoms, and such\nmicroscopic organisms as those which give red snow its colour; while, if\nit became hotter, the pleasant valleys of the Thames and Isis might\nbe uninhabitable by any animated beings save those that flourish in a\ntropical jungle. They, as the fittest, the best adapted to the changed\nconditions, would survive.\n\n\nCCLI\n\nThe practice of that which is ethically best--what we call goodness or\nvirtue--involves a course of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed\nto that which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for existence. In\nplace of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint; in place of\nthrusting aside, or treading down, all competitors, it requires that\nthe individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows; its\ninfluence is directed, not so much to the survival of the fittest, as\nto the fitting of as many as possible to survive. It repudiates the\ngladiatorial theory of existence. It demands that each man who enters\ninto the enjoyment of the advantages of a polity shall be mindful of his\ndebt to those who have laboriously constructed it: and shall take heed\nthat no act of his weakens the fabric in which he has been permitted\nto live. Laws and moral precepts are directed to the end of curbing\nthe cosmic process and reminding the individual of his duty to the\ncommunity, to the protection and influence of which he owes, if not\nexistence itself, at least the life of something better than a brutal\nsavage.\n\n\nCCLII\n\nThe theory of evolution encourages no millennial anticipations. If, for\nmillions of years, our globe has taken the upward road, yet, some time,\nthe summit will be reached and the downward route will be commenced. The\nmost daring imagination will hardly venture upon the suggestion that the\npower and the intelligence of man can ever arrest the procession of the\ngreat year.\n\nMoreover, the cosmic nature born with us and, to a large extent,\nnecessary for our maintenance, is the outcome of millions of years of\nsevere training, and it would be folly to imagine that a few centuries\nwill suffice to subdue its masterfulness to purely ethical ends. Ethical\nnature may count upon having to reckon with a tenacious and powerful\nenemy as long as the world lasts. But, on the other hand, I see no limit\nto the extent to which intelligence and will, guided by sound principles\nof investigation, and organized in common effort, may modify the\nconditions of existence, for a period longer than that now covered by\nhistory. And much may be done to change the nature of man himself.\nThe intelligence which has converted the brother of the wolf into the\nfaithful guardian of the flock ought to be able to do something towards\ncurbing the instincts of savagery in civilized men.\n\nBut if we may permit ourselves a larger hope of abatement of the\nessential evil of the world than was possible to those who, in the\ninfancy of exact knowledge, faced the problem of existence more than\na score of centuries ago, I deem it an essential condition of the\nrealization of that hope that we should cast aside the notion that the\nescape from pain and sorrow is the proper object of life.\n\n\nCCLIII\n\nWe have long since emerged from the heroic childhood of our race, when\ngood and evil could be met with the same \"frolic welcome\"; the attempts\nto escape from evil, whether Indian or Greek, have ended in flight\nfrom the battle-field; it remains to us to throw aside the youthful\nover-confidence and the no less youthful discouragement of nonage. We\nare grown men, and must play the man\n\n                           strong in will\n     To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,\n\ncherishing the good that falls in our way, and bearing the evil, in and\naround us, with stout hearts set on diminishing it. So far, we all may\nstrive in one faith towards one hope:\n\n     It may be that the gulfs will wash us down,\n     It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,\n\n .... but something ere the end,\n     Some work of noble note may yet be done.\n\n\nCCLIV\n\nI do not suppose that I am exceptionally endowed because I have all my\nlife enjoyed a keen perception of the beauty offered us by nature and\nby art Now physical science may and probably will, some day, enable our\nposterity to set forth the exact physical concomitants and conditions of\nthe strange rapture of beauty. But if ever that day arrives, the rapture\nwill remain, just as it is now, outside and beyond the physical world;\nand, even in the mental world, something superadded to mere sensation.\nI do not wish to crow unduly over my humble cousin the orang, but in\nthe aesthetic province, as in that of tine intellect, I am afraid he\nis nowhere. I doubt not he would detect a fruit amidst a wilderness of\nleaves where I could see nothing; but I am tolerably confident that he\nhas never been awestruck, as I have been, by the dim religious gloom, as\nof a temple devoted to the earthgods, of the tropical forests which\nhe inhabits. Yet I doubt not that our poor long-armed and short-legged\nfriend, as he sits meditatively munching his durian fruit, has something\nbehind that sad Socratic face of his which is utterly \"beyond the bounds\nof physical science.\" Physical science may know all about his clutching\nthe fruit and munching it and digesting it, and how the physical\ntitillation of his palate is transmitted to some microscopic cells\nof the gray matter of his brain. But the feelings of sweetness and of\nsatisfaction which, for a moment, hang out their signal lights in his\nmelancholy eyes, are as utterly outside the bounds of physics as is the\n\"fine frenzy\" of a human rhapsodist.\n\n\nCCIV\n\nWhen I was a mere boy, with a perverse tendency to think when I ought\nto have been playing, my mind was greatly exercised by this formidable\nproblem, What would become of things if they lost their qualities?\nAs the qualities had no objective existence, and the thing without\nqualities was nothing, the solid world seemed whittled away--to my\ngreat horror. As I grew older, and learned to use the terms \"matter\"\nand \"force,\" the boyish problem was revived, _mutato nomine_. On the\none hand, the notion of matter without force seemed to resolve the world\ninto a set of geometrical ghosts, too dead even to jabber. On the other\nhand, Boscovich's hypothesis, by which matter was resolved into centres\nof force, was very attractive. But when one tried to think it out,\nwhat in the world became of force considered as an objective entity?\nForce, even the most materialistic of philosophers will agree with the\nmost idealistic, is nothing but a name for the cause of motion. And if,\nwith Boscovich, I resolved things into centres of force, then matter\nvanished altogether and left immaterial entities in its place. One might\nas well frankly accept Idealism and have done with it.\n\n\nCCLVI\n\nTolerably early in life I discovered that one of the unpardonable\nsins, in the eyes of most people, is for a man to presume to go about\nunlabeled. The world regards such a person as the police do an unmuzzled\ndog, not under proper control. I could find no label that would suit\nme, so, in my desire to range myself and be respectable, I invented one;\nand, as the chief thing I was sure of was that I did not know a great\nmany things that the -ists and the -ites about me professed to be\nfamiliar with, I called myself an Agnostic. Surely no denomination could\nbe more modest or more appropriate; and I cannot imagine why I should be\nevery now and then haled out of my refuge and declared sometimes to be\na Materialist, sometimes an Atheist, sometimes a Positivist, and\nsometimes, alas and alack, a cowardly or reactionary Obscurantist.\n\n\nCCLVII\n\nLastly, with respect to the old riddle of the freedom of the will. In\nthe only sense in which the word freedom is intelligible to me--that is\nto say, the absence of any restraint upon doing what one likes within\ncertain limits--physical science certainly gives no more ground for\ndoubting it than the common sense of mankind does. And if physical\nscience, in strengthening our belief in the universality of causation\nand abolishing chance as an absurdity, leads to the conclusion of\ndeterminism, it does no more than follow the track of consistent and\nlogical thinkers in philosophy and in theology, before it existed or was\nthought of. Whoever accepts the universality of the law of causation as\na dogma of philosophy, denies the existence of uncaused phenomena. And\nthe essence of that which is improperly called the freewill doctrine is\nthat occasionally, at any rate, human volition is self-caused, that is\nto say, not caused at all; for to cause oneself one must have anteceded\noneself--which is, to say the least of it, difficult to imagine.\n\n\nCCLVIII\n\nIf the diseases of society consist in the weakness of its faith in\nthe existence of the God of the theologians, in a future state, and in\nuncaused volitions, the indication, as the doctors say, is to suppress\nTheology and Philosophy, whose bickerings about things of which they\nknow nothing have been the prime cause and continual sustenance of that\nevil scepticism which is the Nemesis of meddling with the unknowable.\n\nCinderella is modestly conscious of her ignorance of these high matters.\nShe lights the fire, sweeps the house, and provides the dinner; and is\nrewarded by being told that she is a base creature, devoted to low and\nmaterial interests. But in her garret she has fairy visions out of the\nken of the pair of shrews who are quarrelling downstairs. She sees the\norder which pervades the seeming disorder of the world; the great drama\nof evolution, with its full share of pity and terror, but also with\nabundant goodness and beauty, unrolls itself before her eyes; and she\nlearns, in her heart of hearts, the lesson, that the foundation of\nmorality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up\npretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating\nunintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of\nknowledge.\n\nShe knows that the safety of morality lies neither in the adoption of\nthis or that philosophical speculation, or this or that theological\ncreed, but in a real and living belief in that fixed order of nature\nwhich sends social disorganisation upon the track of immorality, as\nsurely as it sends physical disease after physical trespasses. And of\nthat firm and lively faith it is her high mission to be the priestess.\n\n\nCCLIX\n\nThe first act of a new-born child is to draw a deep breath. In fact, it\nwill never draw a deeper, inasmuch as the passages and chambers of the\nlungs, once distended with air, do not empty themselves again; it is\nonly a fraction of their contents which passes in and out with the flow\nand the ebb of the respiratory tide. Mechanically, this act of drawing\nbreath, or inspiration, is of the same nature as that by which the\nhandles of a bellows are separated, in order to fill the bellows with\nair; and, in like manner, it involves that expenditure of energy which\nwe call exertion, or work, or labour. It is, therefore, no mere metaphor\nto say that man is destined to a life of toil: the work of respiration\nwhich began with his first breath ends only with his last; nor does one\nborn in the purple get off with a lighter task than the child who first\nsees light under a hedge.\n\nHow is it that the new-born infant is enabled to perform this first\ninstalment of the sentence of lifelong labour which no man may escape?\nWhatever else a child may be, in respect of this particular question, it\nis a complicated piece of mechanism, built up out of materials supplied\nby its mother; and in the course of such building-up, provided with a\nset of motors--the muscles. Each of these muscles contains a stock of\nsubstance capable of yielding energy under certain conditions, one of\nwhich is a change of state in the nerve-fibres connected with it The\npowder in a loaded gun is such another stock of substance capable of\nyielding energy in consequence of a change of state in the mechanism of\nthe lock, which intervenes between the finger of the man who pulls\nthe trigger and the cartridge. If that change is brought about, the\npotential energy of the powder passes suddenly into actual energy, and\ndoes the work of propelling the bullet The powder, therefore, may be\nappropriately called work-stuff not only because it is stuff which is\neasily made to yield work in the physical sense, but because a good\ndeal of work in the economical sense has contributed to its production.\nLabour was necessary to collect, transport, and purify the raw sulphur\nand saltpetre; to cut wood and convert it into powdered charcoal; to\nmix these ingredients in the right proportions; to give the mixture the\nproper grain, and so on. The powder once formed part of the stock, or\ncapital, of a powder-maker: and it is not only certain natural bodies\nwhich are collected and stored in the gunpowder, but the labour bestowed\non the operations mentioned may be figuratively said to be incorporated\nin it.\n\n\nCCLX\n\nIn principle, the work-stuff stored in the muscles of the new-born child\nis comparable to that stored in the gun-barrel. The infant is launched\ninto altogether new surroundings; and these operate through the\nmechanism of the nervous machinery, with the result that the potential\nenergy of some of the work-stuff in the muscles which bring about\ninspiration is suddenly converted into actual energy; and this,\noperating through the mechanism of the respiratory apparatus, gives rise\nto an act of inspiration. As the bullet is propelled by the \"going off\"\nof the powder, as it might be said that the ribs are raised and the\nmidriff depressed by the \"going off\" of certain portions of muscular\nwork-stuff. This work-stuff is part of a stock or capital of that\ncommodity stored up in the child s organism before birth, at the expense\nof the mother; and the mother has made good her expenditure by drawing\nupon the capital of food-stuffs which furnished her daily maintenance.\n\nUnder these circumstances, it does not appear to me to be open to doubt\nthat the primary act of outward labour in the series which necessarily\naccompany the life of man is dependent upon the pre-existence of a stock\nof material which is not only of use to him, but which is disposed in\nsuch a manner as to be utilisable with facility. And I further imagine\nthat the propriety of the application of the term \"capital\" to this\nstock of useful substance cannot be justly called in question; inasmuch\nas it is easy to prove that the essential constituents of the work-stuff\naccumulated in the child's muscles have merely been transferred from the\nstore of food-stuffs, which everybody admits to be capital, by means\nof the maternal organism to that of the child, in which they are again\ndeposited to await use. Every subsequent act of labour, in like\nmanner, involves an equivalent consumption of the child's store of\nwork-stuff--its vital capital; and one of the main objects of the\nprocess of breathing is to get rid of some of the effects of that\nconsumption. It follows, then, that, even if no other than the\nrespiratory work were going on in the organism, the capital of\nwork-stuff, which the child brought with it into the world, must sooner\nor later be used up, and the movements of breathing must come to an end;\njust as the see-saw of the piston of a steam-engine stops when the coal\nin the fireplace has burnt away. Milk, however, is a stock of materials\nwhich essentially consists of savings from the food-stuffs supplied\nto the mother. And these savings are in such a physical and chemical\ncondition that the organism of the child can easily convert them into\nwork-stuff. That is to say, by borrowing directly from the vital\ncapital of the mother, indirectly from the store in the natural bodies\naccessible to her; it can make good the loss of its own. The operation\nof borrowing, however, involves further work; that is, the labour of\nsucking, which is a mechanical operation of much the same nature as\nbreathing. The child thus pays for the capital it borrows m labour; but\nas the value in work-stuff of the milk obtained is very far greater than\nthe value of that labour, estimated by the consumption of work-stuff\nit involves, the operation yields a large profit to the infant. The\noverplus of food-stuff suffices to increase the child's capital of\nwork-stuff; and to supply not only the materials for the enlargement of\nthe \"buildings and machinery\" which is expressed by the child's growth,\nbut also the energy required to put all these materials together, and\nto carry them to their proper places. Thus, throughout the years of\ninfancy, and so long thereafter as the youth or man is not thrown upon\nhis own resources, he lives by consuming the vital capital provided by\nothers.\n\n\nCCLXI\n\nLet us now suppose the child come to man's estate in the condition of\na wandering savage, dependent for his food upon what he can pick up or\ncatch, after the fashion of the Australian aborigines. It is plain that\nthe place of mother, as the supplier of vital capital, is now taken\nby the fruits, seeds, and roots of plants and by various kinds of\nanimals....\n\nThe savage, like the child, borrows the capital he needs, and, at any\nrate, intentionally, does nothing towards repayment; it would plainly be\nan improper use of the word \"produce\" to say that his labour in hunting\nfor the roots, or the fruits, or the eggs, or the grubs and snakes,\nwhich he finds and eats, \"produces\" or contributes to \"produce\" them.\nThe same thing is true of more advanced tribes, who are still merely\nhunters, such as the Esquimaux. They may expend more labour and skill;\nbut it is spent in destruction.\n\n\nCCLXII\n\nWhen we find set forth as an \"absolute\" truth the statement that\nthe essential factors in economic production are land, capital and\nlabour--when this is offered as an axiom whence all sorts of other\nimportant truths may be deduced--it is needful to remember that the\nassertion is true only with a qualification. Undoubtedly \"vital capital\"\nis essential; for, as we have seen, no human work can be done unless it\nexists, not even that internal work of the body which is necessary to\npassive life. But, with respect to labour (that is, human labour) I hope\nto have left no doubt on the reader's mind that, m regard to production,\nthe importance of human labour may be so small as to be almost a\nvanishing quantity.\n\n\nCCLXIII\n\nThe one thing needful for economic production is the green plant, as the\nsole producer of vital capital from natural inorganic bodies. Men might\nexist without labour (in the ordinary sense) and without land; without\nplants they must inevitably perish.\n\n\nCCLXIV\n\nSince no amount of labour can produce an ounce of food-stuff beyond\nthe maximum producible by a limited number of plants, under the most\nfavourable circumstances in regard to those conditions which are not\naffected by labour, it follows that, if the number of men to be fed\nincreases indefinitely, a time must come when some will have to starve.\nThat is the essence of the so-called Malthusian doctrine; and it is a\ntruth which, to my mind, is as plain as the general proposition that a\nquantity which constantly increases will, some time or other, exceed any\ngreater quantity the amount of which is fixed.\n\n\nCCLXV\n\n\"Virtually\" is apt to cover more intellectual sins than \"charity\" does\nmoral delicts.\n\n\nCCLXVI\n\nThe notion that the value of a thing bears any necessary relation to the\namount of labour (average or otherwise) bestowed upon it, is a fallacy\nwhich needs no further refutation than it has already received. The\naverage amount of labour bestowed upon warming-pans confers no value\nupon them in the eyes of a Gold-Coast negro; nor would an Esquimaux give\na slice of blubber for the most elaborate of ice-machines.\n\n\nCCLXVII\n\nWho has ever imagined that wealth which, in the hands of an employer,\nis capital, ceases to be capital if it is in the hands of a labourer?\nSuppose a workman to be paid thirty shillings on Saturday evening for\nsix days' labour, that thirty shillings comes out of the employer's\ncapital, and receives the name of \"wages\" simply because it is exchanged\nfor labour. In the workman's pocket, as he goes home, it is a part of\nhis capital, in exactly the same sense as, half an hour before, it was\npart of the employer's capital; he is a capitalist just as much as if he\nwere a Rothschild.\n\n\nCCLXVIII\n\nI think it may be not too much to say that, of all the political\ndelusions which are current in this queer world, the very stupidest are\nthose which assume that labour and capital are necessarily antagonistic;\nthat all capital is produced by labour and therefore, by natural right,\nis the property of the labourer; that the possessor of capital is a\nrobber who preys on the workman and appropriates to himself that which\nhe has had no share in producing.\n\nOn the contrary, capital and labour are necessarily, close allies;\ncapital is never a product of human labour alone; it exists apart from\nhuman labour; it is the necessary antecedent of labour; and it furnishes\nthe materials on which labour is employed. The only indispensable form\nof capital--vital capital--cannot be produced by human labour. All that\nman can do is to favour its formation by the real producers. There is no\nintrinsic relation between the amount of labour bestowed on an article\nand its value in exchange. The claim of labour to the total result of\noperations which are rendered possible only by capital is simply an _a\npriori_ iniquity.\n\n\nCCLXIX\n\nThe vast and varied procession of events, which we call Nature, affords\na sublime spectacle and an inexhaustible wealth of attractive problems\nto the speculative observer. If we confine our attention to that aspect\nwhich engages the attention of the intellect, nature appears a beautiful\nand harmonious whole, the incarnation of a faultless logical process,\nfrom certain premisses in the past to an inevitable conclusion in the\nfuture. But if it be regarded from a less elevated, though more human,\npoint of view; if our moral sympathies are allowed to influence our\njudgment, and we permit ourselves to criticize our great mother as we\ncriticize one another; then our verdict, at least so far as sentient\nnature is concerned, can hardly be so favourable.\n\nIn sober truth, to those who have made a study of the phenomena of\nlife as they are exhibited by the higher forms of the animal world, the\noptimistic dogma, that this is the best of all possible worlds, will\nseem little better than a libel upon possibility. It is really only\nanother instance to be added to the many extant, of the audacity of _a\npriori_ speculators who, having created God in their own image, find no\ndifficulty in assuming that the Almighty must have been actuated by\nthe same motives as themselves. They are quite sure that, had any other\ncourse been practicable, He would no more have made infinite suffering\na necessary ingredient of His handiwork than a respectable philosopher\nwould have done the like.\n\nBut even the modified optimism of the time-honoured thesis of\nphysico-theology, that the sentient world is, on the whole, regulated\nby principles of benevolence, does but ill stand the test of impartial\nconfrontation with the facts of the case. No doubt it is quite true\nthat sentient nature affords hosts of examples of subtle contrivances\ndirected towards the production of pleasure or the avoidance of pain;\nand it may be proper to say that these are evidences of benevolence.\nBut if so, why is it not equally proper to say of the equally numerous\narrangements, the no less necessary result of which is the production of\npain, that they are evidences of malevolence?\n\nIf a vast amount of that which, in a piece of human workmanship, we\nshould call skill, is visible in those parts of the organization of a\ndeer to which it owes its ability to escape from beasts of prey, there\nis at least equal skill displayed in that bodily mechanism of the wolf\nwhich enables him to track, and sooner or later to bring down, the\ndeer. Viewed under the dry light of science, deer and wolf are alike\nadmirable; and, if both were non-sentient automata, there would be\nnothing to qualify our admiration of the action of the one on the other.\nBut the fact that the deer suffers, while the wolf inflicts suffering,\nengages our moral sympathies. We should call men like the deer innocent\nand good, men such as the wolf malignant and bad; we should call those\nwho defended the deer and aided him to escape brave and compassionate,\nand those who helped the wolf in his bloody work base and cruel. Surely,\nif we transfer these judgments to nature outside the world of man at\nall, we must do so impartially. In that case, the goodness of the right\nhand which helps the deer, and wickedness of the left hand which eggs\non the wolf, will neutralize one another: and the course of nature will\nappear to be neither moral nor immoral, but non-moral.\n\nThis conclusion is thrust upon us by analogous facts in every part of\nthe sentient world; yet, mas-much as it not only jars upon prevalent\nprejudices, but arouses the natural dislike to that which is painful,\nmuch ingenuity has been exercised in devising an escape from it.\n\n\nCCLXX\n\nFrom the point of view of the moralist the animal world is on about the\nsame level as a gladiator's show. The creatures are fairly well\ntreated, and set to fight--whereby the strongest, the swiftest, and the\ncunningest live to fight another day. The spectator has no need to turn\nhis thumbs down, as no quarter is given. He must admit that the skill\nand training displayed are wonderful. But he must shut his eyes if he\nwould not see that more or less enduring suffering is the meed of both\nvanquished and victor. And since the great game is going on in every\ncorner of the world, thousands of times a minute; since, were our ears\nsharp enough, we need not descend to the gates of hell to hear--\n\n       ....sospiri, pianti, ed alti guai.\n     Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle\n\n--it seems to follow that, if this world is governed by benevolence, it\nmust be a different sort of benevolence from that of John Howard.\n\n\nCCLXXI\n\nThis may not be the best of all possible worlds, but to say that it\nis the worst is mere petulant nonsense. A worn-out voluptuary may find\nnothing good under the sun, or a vain and inexperienced youth, who\ncannot get the moon he cries for, may vent his irritation in pessimistic\nmoanings; but there can be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable\nperson that mankind could, would, and in fact do, get on fairly well\nwith vastly less happiness and far more misery than find their way into\nthe lives of nine people out of ten. If each and all of us had been\nvisited by an attack of neuralgia, or of extreme mental depression,\nfor one hour in every twenty-four--a supposition which many tolerably\nvigorous people know, to their cost, is not extravagant--the burden\nof life would have been immensely increased without much practical\nhindrance to its general course. Men with any manhood in them find life\nquite worth living under worse conditions than these.\n\n\nCCLXXII\n\nThere is another sufficiently obvious fact, which renders the hypothesis\nthat the course of sentient nature is dictated by malevolence quite\nuntenable. A vast multitude of pleasures, and these among the purest and\nthe best, are superfluities, bits of good which are to all appearance\nunnecessary as inducements to live, and are, so to speak, thrown into\nthe bargain of life. To those who experience them, few delights can be\nmore entrancing than such as are afforded by natural beauty, or by the\narts, and especially by music; but they are products of, rather than\nfactors in, evolution, and it is probable that they are known, in any\nconsiderable degree, to but a very small proportion of mankind.\n\n\nCCLXXIII\n\nThe conclusion of the whole matter seems to be that, if Ormuzd has not\nhad his way in this world, neither has Ahriman. Pessimism is as little\nconsonant with the facts of sentient existence as optimism. If we desire\nto represent the course of nature in terms of human thought, and assume\nthat it was intended to be that which it is, we must say that its\ngoverning principle is intellectual and not moral; that it is a\nmaterialized logical process, accompanied by pleasures and pains, the\nincidence of which, in the majority of cases, has not the slightest\nreference to moral desert That the rain falls alike upon the just and\nthe unjust, and that those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell were no\nworse than their neighbours, seem to be Oriental modes of expressing the\nsame conclusion.\n\n\nCCLXXIV\n\nIn the strict sense of the word \"nature,\" it denotes the sum of the\nphenomenal world, of that which has been, and is, and will be; and\nsociety, like art, is therefore a part of nature. But it is convenient\nto distinguish those parts of nature in which man plays the part of\nimmediate cause, as something apart; and therefore, society, like art,\nis usefully to be considered as distinct from nature. It is the more\ndesirable, and even necessary, to make this distinction, since society\ndiffers from nature in having a definite moral object; whence it comes\nabout that the course shaped by the ethical man--the member of society\nor citizen--necessarily runs counter to that which tne non-ethical\nman--the primitive savage, or man as a mere member of the animal\nkingdom--tends to adopt. The latter fights out the struggle for\nexistence to the bitter end, like any other animal; the former devotes\nhis best energies to the object of setting limits to the struggle.\n\n\nCCLXXV\n\nThe first men who substituted the state of mutual peace for that of\nmutual war, whatever the motive which impelled them to take that step,\ncreated society. But, in establishing peace, they obviously put a limit\nupon the struggle for existence. Between the members of that society,\nat any rate, it was not to be pursued _a outrance_. And of all the\nsuccessive shapes which society has taken, that most nearly approaches\nperfection in which the war of individual against individual is most\nstrictly limited. The primitive savage, tutored by Istar, appropriated\nwhatever took his fancy, and killed whosoever opposed him, if he could.\nOn the contrary, the ideal of the ethical man is to limit his freedom\nof action to a sphere in which he does not interfere with the freedom of\nothers; he seeks the common weal as much as his own; and, indeed, as an\nessential part of his own welfare. Peace is both end and means with him;\nand he founds his life on a more or less complete self-restraint, which\nis the negation of the unlimited struggle for existence. He tries\nto escape from his place in the animal kingdom, founded on the free\ndevelopment of the principle of non-moral evolution, and to establish\na kingdom of Man, governed upon the principle of moral evolution. For\nsociety not only has a moral end, but in its perfection, social life, is\nembodied morality.\n\n\nCCLXXVI\n\nI was once talking with a very eminent physician* about the vis\nmedicatrix naturae. \"Stuff!\" said he; \"nine times out of ten nature does\nnot want to cure the man: she wants to put him in his coffin.\"\n\n     * The late Sir W. Gull.\n\n\nCCLXXVII\n\nLet us look at home. For seventy years peace and industry have had their\nway among us with less interruption and under more favourable conditions\nthan in any other country on the face of the earth. The wealth\nof Croesus was nothing to that which we have accumulated, and our\nprosperity has filled the world with envy. But Nemesis did not forget\nCroesus: has she forgotten us?\n\n\nCCLXXVIII\n\nJudged by an ethical standard, nothing can be less satisfactory than\nthe position in which we find ourselves. In a real, though incomplete,\ndegree we have attained the condition of peace which is the main object\nof social organization; and, for argument's sake, it may be assumed\nthat we desire nothing but that which is in itself innocent and\npraiseworthy--namely, the enjoyment of the fruits of honest industry.\nAnd lo! in spite of ourselves, we are in reality engaged in an\ninternecine struggle for existence with our presumably no less peaceful\nand well-meaning neighbours. We seek peace and we do not ensue it. The\nmoral nature in us asks for no more than is compatible with the general\ngood; the non-moral nature proclaims and acts upon that fine old\nScottish family motto, \"Thou shalt starve ere I want.\" Let us be under\nno illusions, then. So long as unlimited multiplication goes on, no\nsocial organization which has ever been devised, or is likely to be\ndevised, no fiddle-faddling with the distribution of wealth, will\ndeliver society from the tendency to be destroyed by the reproduction\nwithin itself, in its intensest form, of that struggle for existence the\nlimitation of which is the object of society. And however shocking\nto the moral sense this eternal competition of man against man and of\nnation against nation may be; however revolting may be the accumulation\nof misery at the negative pole of society, in contrast with that of\nmonstrous wealth at the positive pole; this state of things must abide,\nand grow continually worse, so long as Istar holds her way unchecked. It\nis the true riddle of the Sphinx; and every nation which does not solve\nit will sooner or later be devoured by the monster itself has generated.\n\n\nCCLXXIX\n\nIt would be folly to entertain any ill-feeling towards those neighbours\nand rivals who, like ourselves, are slaves of Istar; but if somebody\nis to be starved, the modern world has no Oracle of Delphi to which the\nnations can appeal for an indication of the victim. It is open to us\nto try our fortune; and, if we avoid impending fate, there will be a\ncertain ground for believing: that we are the right people to escape.\n_Securus judical orbis_.\n\nTo this end, it is well to look into the necessary conditions of our\nsalvation by works. They are two, one plain to all the world and hardly\nneeding insistence; the other seemingly not so plain, since too often\nit has been theoretically and practically left out of sight The obvious\ncondition is that our produce snail be better than that of others. There\nis only one reason why our goods should be referred to those of our\nrivals--our customers must find them better at the price. That means\nthat we must use more knowledge, skill, and industry in producing them,\nwithout a proportionate increase in the cost of production; and, as the\nprice of labour constitutes a large element in that cost, the rate of\nwages must be restricted within certain limits. It is perfectly true\nthat cheap production and cheap labour are by no means synonymous; but\nit is also true that wages cannot increase beyond a certain proportion\nwithout destroying cheapness. Cheapness, then, with, as part and parcel\nof cheapness, a moderate price of labour, is essential to our success as\ncompetitors in the markets of the world.\n\nThe second condition is really quite as plainly indispensable as the\nfirst, if one thinks seriously about the matter. It is social stability.\nSociety-is stable when the wants of its members obtain as much\nsatisfaction as, life being what it is, common sense and experience show\nmay be reasonably expected. Mankind, in general, care very little for\nforms of government or ideal considerations of any sort; and nothing\nreally stirs the great multitude to break with custom and incur the\nmanifest perils of revolt except the belief that misery in this world,\nor damnation in the next, or both, are threatened by the continuance of\nthe state of things in which they have been brought up. But when they\ndo attain that conviction, society becomes as unstable as a package of\ndynamite, and a very small matter will produce the explosion which sends\nit back to the chaos of savagery.\n\n\nCCLXXX\n\nIntelligence, knowledge, and skill are undoubtedly conditions of\nsuccess; but of what avail are they likely to be unless they are\nbacked up by honesty, energy, goodwill, and all the physical and\nmoral faculties that go to the making of manhood, and unless they are\nstimulated by hope of such reward as men may fairly look to? And what\ndweller in the slough of want, dwarfed in body and soul, demoralized,\nhopeless, can reasonably be expected to possess these qualities?\n\n\nCCLXXXI\n\nI am as strongly convinced as the most pronounced individualist can be,\nthat it is desirable that every man should be free to act in every way\nwhich does not limit the corresponding freedom of his fellow-man. But\nI fail to connect that great induction of political science with\nthe practical corollary which is frequently drawn from it: that the\nState--that is, the people in their corporate capacity--has no business\nto meddle with anything but the administration of justice and external\ndefence. It appears to me that the amount of freedom which incorporate\nsociety may fitly leave to its members is not a fixed quantity, to be\ndetermined _a priori_ by deduction from the fiction called\n\"natural rights\"; but that it must be determined by, and vary with,\ncircumstances. I conceive it to be demonstrable that the higher and the\nmore complex the organization of the social body, the more closely is\nthe life of each member bound up with that of the whole; and the larger\nbecomes the category of acts which cease to be merely self-regarding, and\nwhich interfere with the freedom of others more or less seriously.\n\nIf a squatter, living ten miles away from any neighbour, chooses to burn\nhis house down to get rid of vermin, there may be no necessity (in the\nabsence of insurance offices) that the law should interfere with his\nfreedom of action; his act can hurt nobody but himself. But if the\ndweller in a street chooses to do the same thing, the State very\nproperly makes such a proceeding a crime, and punishes it as such. He\ndoes meddle with his neighbour's freedom, and that seriously. So it\nmight, perhaps, be a tenable doctrine, that it would be needless, and\neven tyrannous, to make education compulsory in a sparse agricultural\npopulation, living in abundance on the produce of its own soil; but, in\na densely populated manufacturing country, struggling for existence with\ncompetitors, every ignorant person tends to become a burden upon, and,\nso far, an infringer of the liberty of, his fellows, and an obstacle to\ntheir success. Under such circumstances an education rate is, in fact, a\nwar tax, levied for purposes of defence.\n\n\nCCLXXXII\n\nThat State action always has been more or less misdirected, and always\nwill be so, is, I believe, perfectly true. But I am not aware that it is\nmore true of the action of men in their corporate capacity than it is\nof the doings of individuals. The wisest and most dispassionate man\nin existence, merely wishing to go from one stile in a field to the\nopposite, will not walk quite straight--he is always going a little\nwrong, and always correcting himself; and I can only congratulate the\nindividualist who is able to say that his general course of life has\nbeen of a less undulatory character. To abolish State action, because\nits direction is never more than approximately correct, appears to me\nto be much the same thing as abolishing the man at the wheel altogether,\nbecause, do what he will, the ship yaws more or less. \"Why should I be\nrobbed of my property to pay for teaching another man's children?\" is an\nindividualist question, which is not unfrequently put as if it settles\nthe whole business. Perhaps it does, but I find difficulties in seeing\nwhy it should. The parish in which I live makes me pay my share for the\npaving and lighting of a great many streets that I never pass through;\nand I might plead that I am robbed to smooth the way and lighten the\ndarkness of other people. But I am afraid the parochial authorities\nwould not let me off on this plea; and I must confess I do not see why\nthey should.\n\n\nCCLXXXIII\n\nI cannot speak of my own knowledge, but I have every reason to believe\nthat I came into this world a small reddish person, certainly without\na gold spoon in my mouth, and in fact with no discernible abstract or\nconcrete \"rights\" or property of any description. If a foot was not\nset upon me at once, as a squalling nuisance, it was either the natural\naffection of those about me, which I certainly had done nothing to\ndeserve, or the fear of the law which, ages before my birth, was\npainfully built up by the society into which I intruded, that prevented\nthat catastrophe. If I was nourished, cared for, taught, saved from the\nvagabondage of a wastrel, I certainly am not aware that I did anything\nto deserve those advantages. And, if I possess anything now, it strikes\nme that, though I may have fairly earned my day's wages for my\nday's work, and may justly call them my property--yet, without that\norganization of society, created out of the toil and blood of long\ngenerations before my time, I should probably have had nothing but a\nflint axe and an indifferent hut to call my own; and even those would be\nmine only so long as no stranger savage came my way.\n\nSo that if society, having, quite gratuitously, done all these things\nfor me, asks me in turn to do something towards its preservation--even\nif that something is to contribute to the teaching of other men's\nchildren--I really, in spite of all my individualist learnings, feel\nrather ashamed to say no. And, if I were not ashamed, I cannot say that\nI think that society would be dealing unjustly with me in converting\nthe moral obligation into a legal one. There is a manifest unfairness in\nletting all the burden be borne by the willing horse.\n\n\nCCLXXXIV\n\nIt is impossible to insist too strongly upon the fact that efficient\nteachers of science and of technology are not to be made by the\nprocesses in vogue at ordinary training colleges. The memory loaded with\nmere bookwork is not the thing wanted--is, in fact, rather worse\nthan useless--in the teacher of scientific subjects. It is absolutely\nessential that his mind should be full of knowledge and not of mere\nlearning, and that what he knows should have been learned in the\nlaboratory rather than in the library.\n\n\nCCLXXXV\n\nThe attempt to form a just conception of the value of work done in any\ndepartment of human knowledge, and of its significance as an indication\nof the intellectual and moral qualities of which it was the product,\nis an undertaking which must always be beset with difficulties, and may\neasily end in making the limitations of the appraiser more obvious\nthan the true worth of that which he appraises. For the judgment of a\ncontemporary is liable to be obscured by intellectual incompatibilities\nand warped by personal antagonisms; while the critic of a later\ngeneration, though he may escape the influence of these sources of\nerror, is often ignorant, or forgetful, of the conditions under which\nthe labours of his predecessors have been carried on. He is prone to\nlose sight of the fact that without their clearing of the ground and\nrough-hewing of the foundation-stones, the stately edifice of later\nbuilders could not have been erected.\n\n\nCCLXXXVI\n\nThe vulgar antithesis of fact and theory is founded on a misconception\nof the nature of scientific theory, which is, or ought to be, no more\nthan the expression of fact in a general form. Whatever goes beyond such\nexpression is hypothesis; and hypotheses are not ends, but means. They\nshould be regarded as instruments by which new lines of inquiry\nare indicated; or by the aid of which a provisional coherency and\nintelligibility may be given to seemingly disconnected groups of\nphenomena. The most useful of servants to the man of science, they\nare the worst of masters. And when the establishment of the hypothesis\nbecomes the end, and fact is alluded to only so far as it suits the\n\"Idee,\" science has no longer anything to do with the business.\n\n\nCCLXXXVII\n\nScientific observation tell us that living birds form a group or class\nof animals, through which a certain form of skeleton runs; and that this\nkind of skeleton differs in certain well-defined characters from that of\nmammals. On the other hand, if anyone utterly ignorant of osteology, but\nendowed with the artistic sense of form, were set before a bird skeleton\nand a mammalian skeleton, he would at once see that the two were\nsimilar and yet different. Very likely he would be unable to give\nclear expression to his just sense of the differences and resemblances;\nperhaps he would make great mistakes in detail if he tried.\nNevertheless, he would be able to draw from memory a couple of sketches,\nin which all the salient points of likeness and unlikeness would be\nreproduced with sufficient accuracy. The mere osteologist, however\naccurately he might put the resemblances and differences into words,\nif he lacked the artistic visualising faculty, might be hopelessly\nincompetent to perform any such feat; lost in details, it might not even\noccur to him that it was possible; or, still more probably, the habit of\nlooking for differences might impair the perception of resemblances.\n\nUnder these circumstances, the artist might be led to higher and broader\nviews, and thus be more useful to the progress of science than the\nosteological expert. Not that the former attains the higher truth by a\ndifferent method; for the way of reaching truth is one and indivisible.\nWhether he knows it or not, the artist has made a generalization\nfrom two sets of facts, which is perfectly scientific in form;\nand trustworthy so far as it rests upon the direct perception of\nsimilarities and dissimilarities. The only peculiarity of the artistic\napplication of scientific method lies in the artist's power of\nvisualizing the result of his mental processes, of embodying the facts\nof resemblance in a visible \"type,\" and of showing the manner in which\nthe differences may be represented as modifications of that type;\nhe does, in fact, instinctively, what an architect, who desires to\ndemonstrate the community of plan in certain ancient temples, does by\nthe methodical construction of plans, sections, and elevations; the\ncomparison of which will furnish him with the \"type\" of such temples.\n\nThus, what I may term the artistic fashion of dealing with anatomy is\nnot only perfectly legitimate, but has been of great utility. The harm\nof it does not begin until tine attempt is made to get more out of this\nvisual projection of thought than it contains; until the origin of the\nnotion of \"type\" is forgotten and the speculative philosopher deludes\nhimself with the supposition that the generalization suggested by fact\nis an \"Idea\" of the Pure Reason, with which fact must, somehow or other,\nbe made to agree.\n\n\nCCLXXXVIII\n\nFlowers are the primers of the morphologist; those who run may read in\nthem uniformity of type amidst endless diversity, singleness of plan\nwith complex multiplicity of detail. As a musician might say, every\nnatural group of flowering plants is a sort of visible fugue, wandering\nabout a central theme which is never forsaken, however it may,\nmomentarily, cease to be apparent.\n\n\nCCLXXXIX\n\nLike all the really great men of literature, Goethe added some of the\nqualities of the man of science to those of the artist, especially the\nhabit of careful and patient observation of Nature. The great poet\nwas no mere book-learned speculator. His acquaintance with mineralogy,\ngeology, botany and osteology, the fruit of long and wide studies, would\nhave sufficed to satisfy the requirements of a professoriate in those\ndays, if only he could have pleaded ignorance of everything else.\nUnfortunately for Goethe's credit with his scientific contemporaries,\nand, consequently, for the attention attracted by his work, he did not\ncome forward as a man of science until the public had ranged him among\nthe men of literature. And when the little men have thus classified a\nbig man, they consider that the last word has been said about him; it\nappears to the thought hardly decent on his part if he venture to stray\nbeyond the speciality they have assigned to him. It does not seem to\noccur to them that a clear intellect is an engine capable of supplying\npower to all sorts of mental factories; nor to admit that, as Goethe\nsomewhere pathetically remarks, a man may have a right to live for\nhimself as well as for the public; to follow the line of work that\nhappens to interest him, rather than that which interests them.\n\nOn the face of the matter it is not obvious that the brilliant poet had\nless chance of doing good service in natural science than the dullest of\ndissectors and nomenclators. Indeed, as I have endeavoured to indicate,\nthere was considerable reason, a hundred years ago, for thinking that an\ninfusion of the artistic way of looking at things might tend to revivify\nthe somewhat mummified body of technical zoology and botany. Great ideas\nwere floating about; the artistic apprehension was needed to give\nthese airy nothings a local habitation and a name; to convert vague\nsuppositions into definite hypotheses. And I apprehend that it was\njust this service which Goethe rendered by writing his essays on the\nintermaxillary bone, on osteology generally, and on the metamorphoses of\nplants.\n\n\nCCXC\n\nAll this is mere justice to Goethe; but, as it is the unpleasant duty of\nthe historian to do justice upon, as well as to, great men, it behoves\nme to add that the germs of the worst faults of later ioeculative\nmorphologists are no less visible in his writings than their great\nmerits. In the artist-philosopher there was, at best, a good deal more\nartist than philosopher; and when Goethe ventured into the regions which\nbelong to pure science, this excess of a virtue had all the consequences\nof a vice. \"Trennen und zahlen lag nicht in meiner Natur,\" says he; but\nthe mental operations of which \"analysis and numeration\" are partial\nexpressions are indispensable for every step of progress beyond happy\nglimpses, even in morphology; while, in physiology and in physics,\nfailure in the most exact performance of these operations involves\nsheer disaster, as indeed Goethe was afforded abundant opportunity of\nlearning. Yet he never understood the sharp lessons he received, and\nput down to malice, or prejudice, the ill-reception of his unfortunate\nattempts to deal with purely physical problems.\n\n\nCCXCI\n\nThere was never any lack of the scientific imagination about the great\nanatomist; and the charge of indifference to general ideas, sometimes\nbrought against him, is stupidly unjust. But Cuvier was one of those\nhappily endowed persons in whom genius never parts company with\ncommon-sense; and whose perception of the importance of sound method is\nso great that they look at even a truth, hit upon by those who pursue\nan essentially vicious method, with the sort of feeling with which an\nhonest trader regards the winnings of a gambler. They hold it better\nto remain poor than obtain riches by the road that, as a rule, leads to\nruin.\n\n\nCCXCII\n\nThe irony of history is nowhere more apparent than in science. Here we\nsee the men, over whose minds the coming events of the world of biology\ncast their shadows, doing their best to spoil their case in stating it;\nwhile the man who represented sound scientific method is doing his best\nto stay the inevitable progress of thought and bolster up antiquated\ntraditions. The progress of knowledge during the last seventy years\nenables us to see that neither Geoffroy, nor Cuvier, was altogether\nright nor altogether wrong; and that they were meant to hunt m couples\ninstead of pulling against one another. Science has need of servants of\nvery different qualifications; of artistic constructors no less than of\nmen of business; of people to design her palaces and of others to see\nthat the materials are sound and well-fitted together; of some to spur\ninvestigators, and of others to keep their heads cool. The only would-be\nservants, who are entirely unprofitable, are those who do not take the\ntrouble to interrogate Nature, but imagine vain things about her; and\nspin, from their inner consciousness, webs, as exquisitely symmetrical\nas those of the most geometrical of spiders, but alas! as easily torn to\npieces by some inconsidered bluebottle of a fact.\n\n\nCCXCIII\n\nThere is always a Cape Horn in one's life that one either weathers or\nwrecks one's self on.\n\n\nCCXCIV\n\nA Local Museum should be exactly what its name implies, viz.,\n\"Local\"--illustrating local Geology, local Botany, local Zoology, and\nlocal Archaeology.\n\nSuch a museum, if residents who are interested in these sciences take\nproper pains, may be brought to a great degree of perfection and be\nunique of its kind. It will tell both natives and strangers exactly what\nthey want to know, and possess great scientific interest and importance.\nWhereas the ordinary lumber-room of clubs from New Zealand, Hindoo\nidols, sharks' teeth, mangy monkeys, scorpions, and conch shells--who\nshall describe the weary inutility of it? It is really worse than\nnothing, because it leads the unwary to look for the objects of science\nelsewhere than under their noses. What they want to know is that their\n\"America is here,\" as Wilhelm Meister has it.\n\n\nCCXCV\n\nA man who speaks out honestly and fearlessly that which he knows,\nand that which he believes, will always enlist the good-will and the\nrespect, however much he may fail in winning the assent, of his fellow\nmen.\n\n\nCCXCVI\n\nScience and literature are not two things, but two sides of one thing.\n\n\nCCXCVII\n\nI neither deny nor affirm the immortality of man. I see no reason for\nbelieving in it, but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving\nit.\n\nI have no _a priori_ objections to the doctrine. No man who has to\ndeal daily and hourly with nature can trouble himself about _a priori_\ndifficulties. Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing\nanything else, and I will believe that Why should I not? It is not half\nso wonderful as the conservation of force, or the indestructibility of\nmatter. <\n\nWhoso clearly appreciates all that is implied in the falling of a stone\ncan have no difficulty about any doctrine simply on account of its\nmarvellousness. But the longer I live, the more obvious it is to me that\nthe most sacred act of a man's life is to say and to feel, \"I believe\nsuch and such to be true.\" All the greatest rewards and all the heaviest\npenalties of existence cling about that act The universe is one and the\nsame throughout; and if the condition of my success in unravelling some\nlittle difficulty of anatomy or physiology is that I shall rigorously\nrefuse to put faith in that which does not rest on sufficient evidence,\nI cannot believe that the great mysteries of existence will be laid open\nto me on other terms.\n\n\nCCXCVIII\n\nI cannot conceive of my personality as a thing apart from the phenomena\nof my life. When I try to form such a conception I discover that, as\nColeridge would have said, I only hypostatize a word, and it alters\nnothing if, with Fichte, I suppose the universe to be nothing but a\nmanifestation of my personality. I am neither more nor less eternal than\nI was before.\n\n\nCCXCIX\n\nI do not know whether the animals persist after they disappear or not. I\ndo not even know whether the infinite difference between us and them\nmay not be compensated by _their_ persistence and _my_ cessation after\napparent death, just as the humble bulb of an annual fives, whilst the\nglorious flowers it has put forth die away.\n\n\nCCC\n\nMy business is to teach my aspirations to confirm themselves to fact,\nnot to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.\n\n\nCCCI\n\nScience seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the\ngreat truth which is embodied in the Christian conception of entire\nsurrender to the will of God. Sit down before fact as a little child,\nbe prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow numbly wherever\nand to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have\nonly begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at\nall risks to do this.\n\n\nCCCII\n\nThere are, however, other arguments commonly brought forward in favour\nof the immortality of man, which are to my mind not only delusive but\nmischievous. The one is the notion that the moral government of the\nworld is imperfect without a system of future rewards and punishments.\nThe other is: that such a system is indispensable to practical morality.\nI believe that both these dogmas are very mischievous lies.\n\nWith respect to the first, I am no optimist, but I have the firmest\nbelief that the Divine Government (if we may use such a phrase to\nexpress the sum of the \"customs of matter\") is wholly just The more I\nknow intimately of the lives of other men (to say nothing of my own),\nthe more obvious it is to me that the wicked does _not_ flourish nor is\nthe righteous punished. But for this to be clear we must bear in mind\nwhat almost all forget, that the rewards of life are contingent upon\nobedience to the _whole_ Law--physical as well as moral--and that moral\nobedience will not atone for physical sin, or _vice versa_.\n\n\nCCCIII\n\nThe ledger of the Almighty is strictly kept, and every one of us has the\nbalance of his operations paid over to him at the end of every minute of\nhis existence.\n\nLife cannot exist without a certain conformity to the surrounding\nuniverse--that conformity involves a certain amount of happiness in\nexcess of pain. In short, as we live we are paid for living.\n\n\nCCCIV\n\nIt is to be recollected in view of the apparent discrepancy between\nmen's acts and their rewards that Nature is juster than we. She takes\ninto account what a man brings with him into the world, which human\njustice cannot do. If I, born a bloodthirsty and savage brute,\ninheriting these qualities from others, kill you, my fellow-men will\nvery justly hang me, but I shall not be visited with the horrible\nremorse which would be my real punishment if, my nature being higher, I\nhad done the same thing.\n\n\nCCCV\n\nThe absolute justice of the system of things is as clear to me as any\nscientific fact The gravitation of sin to sorrow is as certain as that\nof the earth to the sun, and more so--for experimental proof of the fact\nis within reach of us all--nay, is before us all in our own lives, if we\nhad but the eyes to see it.\n\n\nCCCVI\n\nNot only do I disbelieve in the need for compensation, but I believe\nthat the seeking for rewards and punishments out of this life leads men\nto a ruinous ignorance of the fact that their inevitable rewards and\npunishments are here.\n\n\nCCCVII\n\nIf the expectation of hell hereafter can keep me from evil-doing, surely\n_a fortiori_ the certainty of hell now will do so? If a man could be\nfirmly impressed with the belief that stealing damaged him as much as\nswallowing arsenic would do (and it does), would not the dissuasive\nforce of that belief be greater than that of any based on mere future\nexpectations?\n\n\nCCCVIII\n\nAs I stood behind the coffin of my little son the other day, with my\nmind bent on anything but disputation, the officiating minister read, as\na part of his duty, the words, \"If the dead rise not again, let us eat\nand drink, for to-morrow we die.\" I cannot tell you how inexpressibly\nthey shocked me. Paul had neither wife nor child, or he must have known\nthat his alternative involved a blasphemy against all that was best and\nnoblest in human nature. I could have laughed with scorn. What! because\nI am face to face with irreparable loss, because I have given back to\nthe source from whence it came, the cause of a great happiness, still\nretaining through all my life the blessings which have sprung and will\nspring from that cause, I am to renounce my manhood, and, howling,\ngrovel in bestiality? Why, the very apes know better, and if you\nshoot their young the poor brutes grieve their grief out and do not\nimmediately seek distraction in a gorge.\n\n\nCCCIX\n\nHe had intellect to comprehend his highest duty distinctly, and force\nof character to do it; which of us dare ask for a higher summary of his\nlife than that? For such a man there can be no fear in facing the\ngreat unknown, his life has been one long experience of the substantial\njustice of the laws by which this world is governed, and he will calmly\ntrust to them still as he lays his head down for his long sleep.\n\n\nCCCX\n\nWhether astronomy and geology can or cannot be made to agree with the\nstatements as to the matters of fact laid down in Genesis--whether the\nGospels are historically true or not--are matters of comparatively small\nmoment in the face of the impassable gulf between the anthropomorphism\n(however refined) of theology and the passionless impersonality of the\nunknown and unknowable which science shows everywhere underlying the\nthin veil of phenomena.\n\n\nCCCXI\n\nI am too much a believer in Butler and in the great principle of the\n\"Analogy\" that \"there is no absurdity in theology so great that you\ncannot parallel it by a greater absurdity of Nature\" (it is not commonly\nstated in this way), to have any difficulties about miracles. I have\nnever had the least sympathy with the _a priori_ reasons against\northodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible\nantipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school.\n\n\nCCCXII\n\nThis universe is, I conceive, like to a great game being played out, and\nwe poor mortals are allowed to take a hand. By great good fortune the\nwiser among us have made out some few of the rules of the game, as at\npresent played. We call them \"Laws of Nature,\" and honour them because\nwe find that if we obey them we win something for our pains. The\ncards are our theories and hypotheses, the tricks our experimental\nverifications. But what sane man would endeavour to solve this problem:\ngiven the rules of a game and the winnings, to find whether the\ncards are made of pasteboard or gold-leaf? Yet the problem of the\nmetaphysicians is to my mind no saner.\n\n\nCCCXIII\n\nI have not the smallest sentimental sympathy with the negro; don't\nbelieve in him at all, in short. But it is clear to me that slavery\nmeans, for the white man, bad political economy; bad social morality;\nbad internal political organisation, and a bad influence upon free\nlabour and freedom all over the world.\n\n\nCCCXIV\n\nAt the present time the important question for England is not the\nduration of her coal, but the due comprehension of the truths of\nscience, and the labours of her scientific men.\n\n\nCCCXV\n\nIt is better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in\nchains.\n\n\nCCCXVI\n\nA good book is comparable to a piece of meat, and fools are as flies\nwho swarm to it, each for the purpose of depositing and hatching his own\nparticular maggot of an idea.\n\n\nCCCXVII\n\nChildren work a greater metamorphosis in men than any other condition\nof life. They ripen one wonderfully and make life ten times better worth\nhaving than it was.\n\n\nCCCXVIII\n\nTeach a child what is wise, that is _morality_, Teach him what is wise\nand beautiful, that is _religion!_\n\n\nCCCXIX\n\nPeople may talk about intellectual teaching, but what we principally\nwant is the moral teaching.\n\n\nCCCXX\n\nWe are in the midst of a gigantic movement greater than that which\npreceded and produced the Reformation, and really only the continuation\nof that movement But there is nothing new in the ideas which lie at the\nbottom of the movement, nor is any reconcilement possible between free\nthought and traditional authority. One or other will have to succumb\nafter a struggle of unknown duration, which will have as side issues\nvast political and social troubles. I have no more doubt that free\nthought will win in the long run than I have that I sit here writing\nto you, or that this free thought will organize itself into a coherent\nsystem, embracing human life and the world as one harmonious whole. But\nthis organization will be the work of generations of men, and those who\nfurther it most will be those who teach men to rest in no lie, and to\nrest in no verbal delusions.\n\n\nCCCXXI\n\nMake up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is\never done in this world by hesitation.\n\n\nCCCXXII\n\nThe world is neither wise nor just, but it makes up for all its folly\nand injustice by being damnably sentimental.\n\n\nCCCXXIII\n\nWithout seeing any reason to believe that women are, on the average, so\nstrong physically, intellectually, or morally, as men, I cannot shut my\neyes to the fact that many women are much better endowed in all these\nrespects than many men, and I am at a loss to understand on what grounds\nof justice or public policy a career which is open to the weakest and\nmost foolish of the male sex should be forcibly closed to women of\nvigour and capacity.\n\n\nCCCXXIV\n\nWe have heard a great deal lately about the physical disabilities of\nwomen. Some of these alleged impediments, no doubt, are realty inherent\nin their organization, but nine-tenths of them are artificial--the\nproducts of their modes of life. I believe that nothing would tend so\neffectually to get rid of these creations of idleness, weariness, and\nthat \"over stimulation of the emotions\" which, in plainer-spoken\ndays, used to be called wantonness, than a fair share of healthy work,\ndirected towards a definite object, combined with an equally fair share\nof healthy play, during the years of adolescence; and those who are best\nacquainted with the acquirements of an average medical practitioner will\nfind it hardest to believe that the attempt to reach that standard is\nlike to prove exhausting to an ordinarily intelligent and well-educated\nyoung woman.\n\n\nCCCXXV\n\nThe only good that I can see in the demonstration of the truth of\n\"Spiritualism\" is to furnish an additional argument against suicide.\nBetter live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a\n\"medium\" hired at a guinea a seance.\n\n\nCCCXXVI\n\nI ask myself--suppose you knew that by inflicting prolonged pain on\n100 rabbits you could discover a way to the extirpation of leprosy, or\nconsumption, or locomotor ataxy, or of suicidal melancholia among human\nbeings, dare you refuse to inflict that pain? Now I am quite unable\nto say that I dare. That sort of daring would seem to me to be extreme\nmoral cowardice, to involve gross inconsistency.\n\nFor the advantage and protection of society, we all agree to inflict\npain upon man--pain of the most prolonged and acute character--in our\nprisons, and on our battlefields. If England were invaded, we should\nhave no hesitation about inflicting the maximum of suffering upon our\ninvaders for no other object than our own good.\n\nBut if the good of society and of a nation is a sufficient plea for\ninflicting pain on men, I think it may suffice us for experimenting on\nrabbits or dogs.\n\nAt the same time, I think that a heavy moral responsibility rests on\nthose who perform experiments of the second kind.\n\nThe wanton infliction of pain on man or beast is a crime; pity is that\nso many of those who (as I think rightly) hold this view, seem to\nforget that the criminality lies in the wantonness and not in the act of\ninflicting pain _per se_.\n\n\nCCCXXVII\n\nThe one condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral worth\nand intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot\ngive these, but it can cherish them and bring them to the front in\nwhatever station of society they are to be found, and the universities\nought to be and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the nation.\n\n\nCCCXXVIII\n\nAs a matter of fact, men sin, and the consequences of their sins affect\nendless generations of their progeny. Men are tempted, men are punished\nfor the sins of others without merit or demerit of their own; and they\nare tormented for their evil deeds as long as their consciousness lasts.\n\n\nCCCXXIX\n\nI find that as a matter of experience, erroneous beliefs are punished,\nand right beliefs are rewarded--though very often the erroneous belief\nis based on a more conscientious study of the facts than right belief.\n\n\nCCCXXX\n\nIf we are to assume that anybody has designedly set this wonderful\nuniverse going, it is perfectly clear to me that he is no more entirely\nbenevolent and just in any intelligible sense of the words, than that\nhe is malevolent and unjust. Infinite benevolence need not have invented\npain and sorrow at all--infinite malevolence would very easily have\ndeprived us of the large measure of content and happiness that falls\nto our lot After all, Butler's \"Analogy\" is unassailable, and there is\nnothing in theological dogmas more contradictory to our moral sense,\nthan is to be found in the facts of nature. From which, however, the\nBishop's conclusion that the dogmas are true doesn't follow.\n\n\nCCCXXXI\n\nIt appears to me that if every person who is engaged in an industry\nhad access to instruction in the scientific principles on which that\nindustry is based; in the mode of applying these principles to practice;\nin the actual use of the means and appliances employed; in the language\nof the people who know as much about the matter as we do ourselves; and\nlastly, in the art of keeping accounts, Technical Education would have\ndone all that can be required of it.\n\n\nCCCXXXII\n\nThough under-instruction is a bad thing, it is not impossible that\nover-instruction may be worse.\n\n\nCCCXXXIII\n\nThere are two things I really care about--one is the progress of\nscientific thought, and the other is the bettering of the condition\nof the masses of the people by bettering them in the way of lifting\nthemselves out of the misery which has hitherto been the lot of the\nmajority of them. Posthumous fame is not particularly attractive to me,\nbut, if I am to be remembered at all, I would rather it should be as \"a\nman who did his best to help the people\" than by other title.\n\n\nCCCXXXIV\n\nI am of opinion that our Indian Empire is a curse to us. But so long\nas we make up our minds to hold it, we must also make up our minds to\ndo those things which are needful to hold it effectually, and in\nthe long-run it will be found that so doing is real justice both for\nourselves, our subject population, and the Afghans themselves.\n\n\nCCCXXXV\n\nThe great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn\npeace and self-respect.\n\n\nCCCXXXVI\n\nThe more rapidly truth is spread among mankind the better it will be for\nthem. Only let us be sure that it is truth.\n\n\nCCCXXXVII\n\nYour astonishment at the tenacity of life of fallacies, permit me to\nsay, is shockingly unphysiological. They, like other low organisms,\nare independent of brains, and only wriggle the more, the more they are\nsmitten on the place where the brains ought to be.\n\n\nCCCXXXVIII\n\nI don't know what you think about anniversaries. I like them, being\nalways minded to drink my cup of life to the bottom, and take my chance\nof the sweets and bitters.\n\n\nCCCXXXIX\n\nOf the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life--the jamming\ncommon-sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest.\n\n\nCCCXL\n\nLife is like walking along a crowded street--there always seem to be\nfewer obstacles to getting along on the opposite pavement--and yet, if\none crosses over, matters are rarely mended.\n\n\nCCCXLI\n\nThe great thing one has to wish for as time goes on is vigour as long as\none lives, and death as soon as vigour flags.\n\n\nCCCXLII\n\nWhether motion disintegrates or integrates is, I apprehend, a question\nof conditions. A whirlpool in a stream may remain in the same spot for\nany imaginable time. Yet it is the effect of the motion of the particles\nof the water in that spot which continually integrate themselves into\nthe whirlpool and disintegrate themselves from it The whirlpool is\npermanent while the conditions last, though its constituents incessantly\nchange. Living bodies are just such whirlpools. Matter sets into them\nin the shape of food,--sets out of them in the shape of waste products.\nTheir individuality lies in the constant maintenance of a characteristic\nform, not in the preservation of material identity.\n\n\nCCCXLIII\n\nMost of us are idolators, and ascribe divine powers to the abstractions\n\"Force,\" \"Gravity,\" \"Vitality,\" which our own brains have created. I do\nnot know anything about \"inert\" things in nature. If we reduce the world\nto matter and motion, the matter is not \"inert,\" inasmuch as the same\namount of motion affects different kinds of matter in different ways.\nTo go back to my own illustration. The fabric of the watch is not inert,\nevery particle of it is in violent and rapid motion, and the winding-up\nsimply perturbs the whole infinitely complicated system in a particular\nfashion. Equilibrium means death, because life is a succession of\nchanges, while a changing equilibrium is a contradiction m terms. I am\nnot at all clear that a living being is comparable to a machine running\ndown. On this side of the question the whirlpool affords a better\nparallel than the watch. If you dam the stream above or below; the\nwhirlpool dies; just as the living being does if you cut off its food,\nor choke it with its own waste products. And if you alter the sides or\nbottom of the stream you may kill the whirlpool, just as you kill the\nanimal by interfering with its structure. Heat and oxidation as a source\nof heat appear to supply energy to the living machine, the molecular\nstructure of the germ furnishing the \"sides and bottom of the stream,\"\nthat is, determining the results which the energy supplied shall\nproduce.\n\n\nCCCXLIV\n\nI believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a\nnew fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of\nevolution--intelligible to the young.\n\n\nCCCXLV\n\nGovernment by average opinion is merely a circuitous method of going to\nthe devil; those who profess to lead but in fact slavishly follow this\naverage opinion are simply the fastest runners and the loudest squeakers\nof the herd which is rushing blindly down to its destruction.\n\n\nCCCXLVI\n\nIt's very sad to lose your child just when he was beginning to bind\nhimself to you, and I don't know that it is much consolation to reflect\nthat the longer he had wound himself up in your heart-strings the worse\nthe tear would have been, which seems to have been inevitable sooner or\nlater. One does not weigh and measure these things while grief is fresh,\nand in my experience a deep plunge into the waters of sorrow is the\nhopefullest way of getting through them on to one's daily road of life\nagain. No one can help another very much in these crises of life; but\nlove and sympathy count for something.\n\n\nCCCXLVII\n\nThere is amazingly little evidence of \"reverential care for unoffending\ncreation\" in the arrangements of nature, that I can discover. If our\nears were sharp enough to hear all the cries of pain that are uttered\nin the earth by men and beasts, we should be deafened by one continuous\nscream!\n\nAnd yet the wealth of superfluous loveliness in the world condemns\npessimism. It is a hopeless riddle.\n\n\nCCCXLVIII\n\nA man who has only half as much food as he needs is indubitably starved,\neven though his short rations consist of ortolans and are served upon\ngold plate.\n\n\nCCCXLIX\n\nEconomy does not lie in sparing money, but in spending it wisely.\n\n\nCCCL\n\nWe men of science, at any rate, hold ourselves morally bound to \"try\nall things and hold fast to that which is good\"; and among public\nbenefactors, we reckon him who explodes old error, as next in rank to\nhim who discovers new truth.\n\n\nCCCLI\n\nWhatever Linnaeus may say, man is not a rational animal--especially in\nhis parental capacity.\n\n\nCCCLII\n\nThe inquiry into the truth or falsehood of a matter of history is just\nas much a question of pure science as the inquiry into the truth or\nfalsehood of a matter of geology, and the value of evidence in the\ntwo cases must be tested in the same way. If anyone tells me that the\nevidence of the existence of man in the miocene epoch is as good as that\nupon which I frequently act every day of my life, I reply that this\nis quite true, but that it is no sort of reason for believing in the\nexistence of miocene man.\n\nSurely no one but a born fool can fail to be aware that we constantly,\nand in very grave conjunctions, are obliged to act upon extremely\nbad evidence, and that very often we suffer all sorts of penalties in\nconsequence. And surely one must be something worse than a born fool\nto pretend that such decision under the pressure of the enigmas of life\nought to have the smallest influence in those judgments which are made\nwith due and sufficient deliberation.\n\n\nCCCLIII\n\n1. The Church founded by Jesus has _not_ made its way; has _not_\npermeated the world--but _did_ become extinct in the country of its\nbirth--as Nazarenism and Ebionism.\n\n2. The Church that did make its way and coalesced with the State in\nthe 4th century had no more to do with the Church founded by Jesus\nthan Ultra-montanism has with Quakerism. It is Alexandrian Judaism and\nNeoplatonistic mystagogy, and as much of the old idolatry and demonology\nas could be got in under new or old names.\n\n3. Paul has said that the Law was schoolmaster to Christ with more truth\nthan he knew. Throughout the Empire the synagogues had their cloud of\nGentile hangers-on--those who \"feared God\"--and who were fully prepared\nto accept a Christianity, which was merely an expurgated Judaism and the\nbelief in Jesus as the Messiah.\n\n4. The Christian \"Sodalitia\" were not merely religious bodies, but\nfriendly societies, burial societies, and guilds. They hung together for\nall purposes--the mob hated them as it now hates the Jews in Eastern\nEurope, because they were more frugal, more industrious, and lived\nbetter lives than their neighbours, while they stuck together like\nScotchmen.\n\nIf these things are so--and I appeal to your knowledge of history that\nthey are so--what has the success of Christianity to do with the truth\nor falsehood of the story of Jesus?\n\n\nCCCLIV\n\nIt is Baur's great merit to have seen that the key to the problem of\nChristianity lies in the Epistle to the Galatians. No doubt he and his\nfollowers rather overdid the thing, but that is always the way with\nthose who take up a new idea.\n\n\nCCCLV\n\nIf a man cannot do brain work without stimulants of any kind, he had\nbetter turn to hand work--it is an indication on Nature's part that she\ndid not mean him to be a head worker.\n\n\nCCCLVI\n\nIt is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds for\nour beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our\ninstincts.\n\n\nCCCLVII\n\nEven the best of modern civilisations appears to me to exhibit a\ncondition of mankind which neither embodies any worthy ideal nor even\npossesses the merit of stability. I do not hesitate to express my\nopinion that, if there is no hope of a large improvement of the\ncondition of the greater part of the human family; if it is true that\nthe increase of knowledge, the winning of a greater dominion over\nNature which is its consequence, and the wealth which follows upon that\ndominion, are to make no difference in the extent and the intensity of\nWant, with its concomitant physical and moral degradation, among the\nmasses of the people, I should hail the advent of some kindly comet,\nwhich would sweep the whole affair away, as a desirable consummation.\n\nWhat profits it to the human Prometheus that he has stolen the fire of\nheaven to be his servant, and that the spirits of the earth and of the\nair obey him, if the vulture of pauperism is eternally to tear his very\nvitals and keep him on the brink of destruction?\n\n\nCCCLVIII\n\nNo induction, however broad its basis, can confer certainty--in the\nstrict sense of the word. The experience of the whole human race through\ninnumerable years has shown that stones unsupported fall to the ground,\nbut that does not make it certain that any day next week unsupported\nstones will not move the other way. All that it does justify is the very\nstrong expectation, which hitherto has been invariably verified, that\nthey will do just the contrary.\n\nOnly one absolute certainty is possible to man--namely, that at any\ngiven moment the feeling which he has exists.\n\nAll other so-called certainties are beliefs of greater or less\nintensity.\n\n\nCCCLIX\n\nOf moral purpose I see no trace in Nature. That is an article of\nexclusively human manufacture--and very much to our credit.\n\n\nCCCLX\n\nThere is nothing of permanent value (putting aside a few human\naffections), nothing that satisfies quiet reflection--except the sense\nof having worked according to one's capacity and light, to make things\nclear and get rid of cant and shams of all sorts. That was the lesson\nI learned from Carlyle's books when I was a boy, and it has stuck by me\nall my life.\n\nYou may make more of failing to get money, and of succeeding in getting\nabuse--until such time in your life (if you are teachable) you have\nceased to care much about either.\n\n\nCCCLXI\n\nThe doctrine of the conservation of energy tells neither one way nor the\nother [on the doctrine of immortality]. Energy is the cause of movement\nof body, i.e. things having mass. States of consciousness have no mass,\neven if they can be conceded to be movable. Therefore even if they are\ncaused by molecular movements, they would not in any way affect the\nstore of energy.\n\nPhysical causation need not be the only kind of causation, and when\nCabanis said that thought was a function of the brain, in the same\nway as bile secretion is a _function_ of the liver, he blundered\nphilosophically. Bile is a product of the transformation of material\nenergy. But in the mathematical sense of the word \"function\" thought\nmay be a function of the brain. That is to say, it may arise only when\ncertain physical particles take on a certain order.\n\nBy way of a coarse analogy, consider a parallel-sided piece of glass\nthrough which light passes. It forms no picture. Shape it so as to be a\nbi-convex, and a picture appears in its focus.\n\nIs not the formation of the picture a \"function\" of the piece of glass\nthus shaped?\n\nSo, from your own point of view, suppose a mind-stuff--[--Greek--]--a\nnoumenal cosmic light such as is shadowed in the fourth gospel. The\nbrain of a dog will convert it into one set of phenomenal pictures, and\nthe brain of a man into another. But in both cases the result is the\nconsequence of the way in which the respective brains perform their\n\"function.\"\n\n\nCCCLXII\n\nThe actions we call sinful are as much the consequence of the order\nof nature as those we call virtuous. They are part and parcel of the\nstruggle for existence through which all living things have passed, and\nthey have become sins because man alone seeks a higher life in voluntary\nassociation.\n\nTherefore the instrument has never been marred; on the contrary, we are\ntrying to get music out of harps, sacbuts, and psalteries, which never\nwere in tune and seemingly never will be.\n\n\nCCCLXIII\n\nI have always been, am, and propose to remain a mere scholar. All that\nI have ever proposed to myself is to say, this and this I have learned;\nthus and thus have I learned it: go thou and learn better; but do not\nthrust on my shoulders the responsibility for your own laziness if you\nelect to take, on my authority, conclusions, the value of which you\nought to have tested for yourself.\n\n\nCCCLXIV\n\nThere is endless backwoodsman's work yet to be done. If \"those also\nserve who only stand and wait,\" still more do those who sweep and\ncleanse; and if any man elect to give his strength to the weeder's and\nscavenger's occupation, I remain of the opinion that his service should\nbe counted acceptable, and that no one has a right to ask more of him\nthan faithful performance of the duties he has undertaken. I venture to\ncount it an improbable suggestion that any such person--a man, let us\nsay, who has well-nigh reached his threescore years and ten, and has\ngraduated in all the faculties of human relationships; who has taken his\nshare in all the deep joys and deeper anxieties which cling about them;\nwho has felt the burden of young; lives entrusted to his care, and has\nstood alone with his dead before the abyss of the eternal--has never had\na thought beyond negative criticism. It seems to me incredible that such\nan one can have done his day's work, always with a light heart, with\nno sense of responsibility, no terror of that which may appear when the\nfactitious veil of Isis--the thick web of fiction man has woven round\nnature--is stripped off.\n\n\nCCCLXV\n\nIf the doctrine of a Providence is to be taken as the expression, in a\nway \"to be understanded of the people,\" of the total exclusion of chance\nfrom a place even in the most insignificant corner of Nature, if it\nmeans the strong conviction that the cosmic process is rational, and the\nfaith that, throughout all duration, unbroken order has reigned in the\nuniverse, I not only accept it, but I am disposed to think it the most\nimportant of all truths. As it is of more consequence for a citizen to\nknow the law than to be personally acquainted with the features of those\nwho will surely carry it into effect, so this very positive doctrine of\nProvidence, in the sense defined, seems to me far more important than\nall the theorems of speculative theology. If, further, the doctrine is\nheld to imply that, in some indefinitely remote past aeon, the cosmic\nprocess was set going by some entity possessed of intelligence and\nforesight, similar to our own in kind, however superior in degree, if,\nconsequently, it is held that every event, not merely in our planetary\nspeck, but in untold millions of other worlds, was foreknown before\nthese worlds were, scientific thought, so far as I know anything\nabout it, has nothing to say about that hypothesis. It is, in fact, an\nanthropomorphic rendering of the doctrine of evolution.\n\nIt may be so, but the evidence accessible to us is, to my mind, wholly\ninsufficient to warrant either a positive or a negative conclusion.\n\n\nCCCLXVI\n\nIt may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration\nrecorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews--Micah, Isaiah,\nand the rest--who took no count whatever of what might or what might not\nhappen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point\nshould not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.\n\n\nCCCLXVII\n\nBelief in majorities is not rooted in my breast, and if all the world\nwere against me the fact might warn me to revise and criticise my\nopinions, but would not in itself supply a ghost of a reason for\nforsaking them. For myself I say deliberately, it is better to have a\nmillstone tied round the neck and be thrown into the sea than to share\nthe enterprises of those to whom the world has turned, and will turn,\nbecause they minister to its weaknesses and cover up the awful realities\nwhich it shudders to look at.\n\n\nCCCLXVIII\n\nMoral duty consists in the observance of those rules of conduct which\ncontribute to the welfare of society, and by implication, of the\nindividuals who compose it.\n\nThe end of society is peace and mutual protection, so that the\nindividual may reach the fullest and highest life attainable by man.\nThe rules of conduct by which this end is to be attained are\ndiscoverable--like the other so-called laws of Nature--by observation\nand experiment, and only in that way.\n\nSome thousands of years of such experience have led to the\ngeneralisations, that stealing and murder, for example, are inconsistent\nwith the ends of society. There is no more doubt that they are so than\nthat unsupported stones tend to fall. The man who steals or murders,\nbreaks his implied contract with society, and forfeits all protection.\nHe becomes an outlaw, to be dealt with as any other feral creature.\nCriminal law indicates the ways which have proved most convenient for\ndealing with him.\n\nAll this would be true if men had no \"moral sense\" at all, just as\nthere are rules of perspective which must be strictly observed by a\ndraughtsman, and are quite independent of his having any artistic sense.\n\n\nCCCLXIX\n\nThe moral sense is a very complex affair--dependent in part upon\nassociations of pleasure and pain, approbation and disapprobation formed\nby education in early youth, but in part also on an innate sense of\nmoral beauty and ugliness (how originated need not be discussed), which\nis possessed by some people in great strength, while some are totally\ndevoid of it--just as some children draw, or are enchanted by music\nwhile mere infants, while others do not know \"Cherry Ripe\" from \"Rule\nBritannia,\" nor can represent the form of the simplest thing to the end\nof their lives.\n\nNow for this last sort of people there is no reason why they should\ndischarge any moral duty, except from fear of punishment in all its\ngrades, from mere disapprobation to hanging, and the duty of society\nis to see that they live under wholesome fear of such punishment short,\nsharp, and decisive.\n\nFor the people with a keen innate sense of moral beauty there is no need\nof any other motive. What they want is knowledge of the things they may\ndo and must leave undone, if the welfare of society is to be attained.\nGood people so often forget this that some of them occasionally require\nhanging almost as much as the bad.\n\nIf you ask why the moral inner sense is to be (under due limitations)\nobeyed; why the few who are steered by it move the mass in whom it is\nweak? I can only reply by putting another question--Why do the few in\nwhom the sense of beauty is strong--Shakespeare, Raffaele, Beethoven,\ncarry the less endowed multitude away? But they do, and always will.\nPeople who overlook that fact attend neither to history nor to what goes\non about them.\n\nBenjamin Franklin was a shrewd, excellent, kindly man. I have great\nrespect for him. The force of genial common-sense respectability could\nno further go. George Fox was the very antipodes of all this, and yet\none understands how he came to move the world of his day, and Franklin\ndid not.\n\n\nCCCLXX\n\nAs to whether we can fulfil the moral law, I should say hardly any\nof us. Some of us are utterly incapable of fulfilling its plainest\ndictates. As there are men born physically cripples, and intellectually\nidiots, so there are some who are moral cripples and idiots, and can be\nkept straight not even by punishment. For these people there is nothing\nbut shutting up, or extirpation.\n\n\nCCCLXXI\n\nThe cardinal fact in the University questions appears to me to be this:\nthat the student to whose wants the mediaeval University was adjusted,\nlooked to the past and sought book-learning, while the modern looks to\nthe future and seeks the knowledge of things.\n\nThe mediaeval view was that all knowledge worth having was explicitly or\nimplicitly contained in various ancient writings; in the Scriptures, in\nthe writings of the greater Greeks, and those of the Christian Fathers.\nWhatever apparent novelty they put forward, was professedly obtained by\ndeduction from ancient data.\n\nThe modern knows that the only source of real knowledge lies in the\napplication of scientific methods of enquiry to the ascertainment of the\nfacts of existence; that the ascertainable is infinitely greater than\nthe ascertained, and that the chief business of the teacher is not so\nmuch to make scholars as to train pioneers.\n\nFrom this point of view, the University occupies a position altogether\nindependent of that of the coping-stone of schools for general\neducation, combined with technical schools of Theology, Law, and\nMedicine. It is not primarily an institution for testing the work of\nschoolmasters, or for ascertaining the fitness of young men to be\ncurates, lawyers, or doctors.\n\nIt is an institution in which a man who claims to devote himself to\nScience or Art, should be able to find some one who can teach him what\nis already known, and train him in the methods of knowing more.\n\n\nCCCLXXII\n\nThe besetting sin of able men is impatience of contradiction and of\ncriticism. Even those who do their best to resist the temptation,\nyield to it almost unconsciously and become the tools of toadies and\nflatterers. \"Authorities,\" \"disciples.\" and \"schools\" are the curse of\nscience; and do more to interfere with the work of the scientific spirit\nthan all its enemies.\n\n\nCCCLXXIII\n\nPeople never will recollect, that mere learning and mere cleverness are\nof next to no value in life, while energy and intellectual grip, the\nthings that are inborn and cannot be taught, are everything.\n\n\nCCCLXXIV\n\nIn my opinion a man's first duty is to find a way of supporting himself,\nthereby relieving other people of the necessity of supporting him.\nMoreover, the learning to do work of practical value in the world, in an\nexact and careful manner, is of itself a very-important education, the\neffects of which make themselves felt in all other pursuits. The habit\nof doing that which you do not care about when you would much rather be\ndoing something else, is invaluable.\n\n\nCCCLXXV\n\nSuccess in any scientific career requires an unusual equipment of\ncapacity, industry and energy. If you possess that equipment you will\nfind leisure enough after your daily commercial work is over, to make\nan opening in the scientific ranks for yourself. If you do not, you had\nbetter stick to commerce.\n\nNothing is less to be desired than the fate of a young man, who, as\nthe Scotch proverb says, in 'trying to make a spoon spoils a horn' and\nbecomes a mere hanger-on in literature or in science, when he might have\nbeen a useful and a valuable member of Society in other occupations.\n\n\nCCCLXXVI\n\nPlaying Providence is a game at which one is very apt to burn one's\nfingers.\n\n\nCCCLXXVII\n\nI conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century\nhas been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent\napplication of scientifc methods of investigation to all the problems\nwith which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of\ntraditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such\ninvestigation.\n\n\nCCCLXXVIII\n\nScience reckons many prophets, but there is not even a promise of a\nMessiah.\n\n\nCCCLXXIX\n\nI have not the slightest doubt about the magnitude of the evils which\naccrue from the steady increase of European armaments; but I think that\nthis regrettable fact is merely the superficial expression of social\nforces, the operation of which cannot be sensibly affected by agreements\nbetween Governments.\n\nIn my opinion it is a delusion to attribute the growth of armaments\nto the \"exactions of militarism.\" The \"exactions of industrialism,\"\ngenerated by international commercial competition, may, I believe, claim\na much larger share in prompting that growth. Add to this the French\nthirst for revenge, the most just determination of the German and\nItalian peoples to assert their national unity; the Russian Panslavonic\nfanaticism and desire for free access to the western seas; the Papacy\nsteadily fishing in the troubled waters for the means of recovering its\nlost (I hope for ever lost) temporal possessions and spiritual\nsupremacy; the \"sick man,\" kept alive only because each of his doctors\nis afraid of the other becoming his heir.\n\nWhen I think of the intensity of the perturbing agencies which arise out\nof these and other conditions of modern European society, I confess\nthat the attempt to counteract them by asking Governments to agree to a\nmaximum military expenditure, does not appear to me to be worth making;\nindeed I think it might do harm by leading people to suppose that the\ndesires of Governments are the chief agents in determining whether peace\nor war shall obtain in Europe.\n\n\nCCCLXXX\n\nI am not afraid of the priests in the long-run. Scientific method is the\nwhite ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications.\nAnd the importance of scientific method in modern practical life--always\ngrowing and increasing--is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation of\nthe ignorant upper and lower classes, the former of whom especially are\nthe strength of the priests.\n\n\nCCCLXXXI\n\nThere is such a thing as a science of social life, for which, if the\nterm had not been so helplessly degraded, Politics is the proper name.\n\nMen are beings of a certain constitution, who, under certain conditions,\nwill as surely tend to act in certain ways as stones will tend to\nfall if you leave them, unsupported. The laws of their nature are\nas invariable as the laws of gravitation, only the applications to\nparticular cases offer worse problems than the case of the three bodies.\n\nThe Political Economists have gone the right way to work--the way that\nthe physical philosopher follows in all complex affairs--by tracing out\nthe effects of one great cause of human action, the desire of wealth,\nsupposing it to be unchecked.\n\nIf they, or other people, have forgotten that there are other potent\ncauses of action which may interfere with this, it is no fault of\nscientific method but only their own stupidity.\n\nHydrostatics is not a \"dismal science,\" because water does not always\nseek the lowest level--e.g. from a bottle turned upside down, if there is\na cork in the neck!\n\nThere is much need that somebody should do for what is vaguely called\n\"Ethics\" just what the Political Economists have done. Settle the\nquestion of what will be done under the unchecked action of certain\nmotives, and leave the problem of \"ought\" for subsequent consideration.\n\nFor, whatever they ought to do, it is quite certain the majority of men\nwill act as if the attainment of certain positive and negative pleasures\nwere the end of action.\n\nWe want a science of \"Eubiotics\" to tell us exactly what will happen if\nhuman beings are exclusively actuated by the desire of well-being in the\nordinary sense. Of course the utilitarians have laid the foundations of\nsuch a science, with the result that the nicknamer of genius called this\nbranch of science \"pig philosophy,\" making just the same blunder as when\nne called political economy \"dismal science.\"\n\n\"Moderate well-being\" may be no more the worthiest end of life than\nwealth. But if it is the best to be had in this queer world--it may be\nworth trying for.\n\n\nCCCLXXXII\n\nThose who wish to attain to some clear and definite solution of the\ngreat problems which Mr. Darwin was the first person to set before us in\nlater times must base themselves upon the facts which are stated in his\ngreat work, and, still more, must pursue their inquiries by the methods\nof which he was so brilliant an exemplar throughout the whole of\nhis life. You must have his sagacity, his untiring search after the\nknowledge of fact, his readiness always to give up a preconceived\nopinion to that which was demonstrably true, before you can hope to\ncarry his doctrines to their ultimate issue; and whether the particular\nform in which he has put them before us may be such as is finally\ndestined to survive or not is more, I venture to think, than anybody\nis capable at this present moment of saying. But this one thing is\nperfectly certain--that it is only by pursuing his methods, by that\nwonderful single-mindedness, devotion to truth, readiness to sacrifice\nall things for the advance of definite knowledge, that we can hope to\ncome any nearer than we are at present to the truths which he struggled\nto attain.\n\n\nCCCLXXXIII\n\nDean Stanley told me he thought being made a bishop destroyed a man's\nmoral courage. I am inclined to think that the practice of the methods\nof political leaders destroys their intellect for all serious purposes.\n\n\nCCCLXXXIV\n\nIt is one of the most saddening things in life that, try as we may,\nwe can never be certain of making people happy, whereas we can almost\nalways be certain of making them unhappy.\n\n\nCCCLXXXV\n\nMen, my dear, are very queer animals, a mixture of horse-nervousness,\nass-stubbornness and camel-malice---with an angel bobbing about\nunexpectedly like the apple in the posset, and when they can do exactly\nas they please, they are very hard to drive.","title":"Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of T. H. Huxley","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":47520}