Page images
PDF
EPUB

has deduced from an induction of a hundred million instances, was not the true law that regulated its action; and that the occurrence of the number 100,010,002 at the 100,000,002nd term, was as necessary a consequence of the original adjustment, and might have been as fully foreknown at the commencement, as was the regular succession of any one of the intermediate numbers to its immediate antecedent. The same remark applies to the next apparent deviation from the new law, which was founded on an induction of 2761 terms, and to all the succeeding laws; with this limitation only — that whilst their consecutive introduction at various definite intervals is a necessary consequence of the mechanical structure of the engine, our knowledge of analysis does not yet enable us to predict the periods at which the more distant laws will be introduced."

"The engine we have been considering is but a very small portion (about fifteen figures) of a much larger one which was preparing, and is partly executed; it was intended, when completed, that it should have presented at once to the eye about one hundred and thirty figures. In that more extended form which recent simplifications have enabled me to give to machinery constructed for the purpose of making calculations, it will be possible, by certain adjustments, to set the engine so that it shall produce the series of natural numbers in regular order, from unity up to a number expressed by more than a thousand places of figures. At the end of that term, another and a different law shall regulate the succeeding terms; this law shall continue in operation perhaps for a number of terms, expressed perhaps by unity, followed by a thousand zeros, or 101009; at which period a third law shall be introduced, and, like its predecessors, govern the figures produced by the engine during a third of those enormous periods. This change of laws might continue without limit; each individual law being destined to govern for millions of ages the calculations of the engine, and then give way to its successor, to pursue a like career."

The application of this is obvious. As the calculating engine is constructed in such a way as to cause these different series of numbers to be presented one after another, without the alteration or readjustment even of any of its parts; in like manner, that larger and more complex machine which men call the earth, is so contrived that the different organic races make their appearance upon it, in due order and time, without the interposition of any higher agency in the formation of new species.

But if we are at liberty to make a supposition of this kind with reference to the world considered as the work of an all-powerful Creator, why may we not further suppose it to have always existed with the

1850.]

Nature reproductive-not Originating.

347

same constitutional endowments, and thus avoid all necessity of having recourse to the idea of an intelligent author? It is this highest and most generalized form of materialism—this last defence behind which a philosophical atheism can entrench itself—that we have to consider. In examining it, we shall confine our attention to the new element involved; to this great law of succession among races by which all the phenomena of life upon our globe are supposed to be satisfactorily explained.

That the actual operation of such a law has never been observed is not of itself, as we have already said, a sufficient reason for denying its existence. Indeed, unless there be other objections to it, this cannot be urged with any considerable force. But are there not other objections? Does not the law involve that which is impossible or contrary to reason or at variance with universally admitted facts or in conflict with great and wide-spreading analogies? These are questions that must be considered before we can decide upon the admissibility of the supposition.

In the first place, then, we remark that the above law supposes the actual production of organized beings adapted to the circumstances under which they come into existence. Now we behold nothing in nature analogous to this. Her powers are only reproductive. She is continually repeating her own forms. She originates nothing. This is substantially true even of inorganic nature, but it is more especially so of organic. Here we behold reproduction constantly going forward in every variety of mode and under ever changing circumstances; but we see no production. The organic types already in existence are repeated over and over again through hundreds and thousands of generations, but no new types come into being. The supposition, therefore, that the different living and extinct races of animals and vegetables, have had their origin in the simple powers of nature, is contrary to all that we know of those powers and consequently in the highest degree improbable.

Neither is the case of the calculating engine designed to illustrate the supposed law, in all respects parallel. In that, each of the successive terms of the different series of numbers, is presented independently of those which precede it, by the direct working of the engine. The several terms are related to one another only through their common relation to the mechanism by which they are evolved. The successive generations of the different species of plants and animals on the contrary, have no immediate dependence upon the structure of the earth or any of the physical arrangements connected with it. These latter furnish the conditions necessary to their continued existence, but have no direct

agency in their production. This is provided for in the constitution of the plants and animals themselves. Each generation derives its being from that immediately preceding it, without which it could not have birth. The phenomena of the calculating engine find their true parallel in the successive phases presented by our globe during the progress of its physical development, all of which were provided for in the composition of the original mass. Beyond this, all resemblance fails. No light is thrown by this wonderful achievement of ingenuity and skill upon the probable origin of the different organic races.

Having premised these general observations we proceed to a more particular examination of this last and most subtle form of atheism. By a law growing out of the essential constitution of things, each of the several tribes of plants and animals, it is said, come into being whenever there is developed at any point of the earth's surface, the assemblage of physical conditions necessary to its existence. What, we would ask, are the instrumentalities by which this law is carried into effect? It cannot execute itself; and all external influence is from the nature of the case excluded. How then shall we suppose the different plants and animals to have originated? In what manner shall we imagine the first oak, pine or elm, the first horse, ox, elephant or man to have been organized? Did the necessary elements, come together of their own accord, at the proper time and place, and spontaneously assume these several organic forms? Do oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen possess powers enabling them to do this? Is there aught in their manifestations that affords evidence of it, or would in any manner indicate it? Is not such an idea, on the contrary, at variance with all that we know of the properties of these bodies? Is it not especially inconsistent wholly irreconcilable with that 'vis inertia, that character of passivity which is a universal attribute of matter? Or if we suppose the elements at certain epochs or on the arising of certain conditions to take on these powers a supposition which no sane mind can for a moment entertain-why should they not, at such times or on such occasions, all enter into organic combinations and assume organic forms? Why should not the whole exterior of our globe under the influence of this new impulse, be suddenly transmuted into trees, horses, elephants and men? No one we think, will be disposed to contend for the production of the first individuals of the different species of animals and vegetables by the spontaneous coming together of their constituent molecules. Such a doctrine would be but one remove in absurdity from that of the fortuitous concurrence of atoms to which we adverted in the earlier part of our essay.

[ocr errors]

To what other mode of development shall we then look? Shall

1850.]

Doctrine of Development.

349

we suppose that each new species is an advance upon that which immediately preceded it, in the same way as the chrysalis is an advance upon the caterpillar, and the butterfly upon the chrysalis; that the different plants and animals, extinct as well as living, have been successively evolved from one another by virtue of an organic law embodied in the constitution of the first individuals of each? That in consequence of this law, after a certain number of generations a hundred or thousand or million it may be the pine turns into the oak, the fish into the frog, the horse into the elephant, the monkey into the man? Shall we explain in this manner the origin of the innumerable organic beings which everywhere surround us, or whose fossil remains are so thickly scattered through the outer portions of our globe?

But even allowing this to be a satisfactory account of the multiplication of orders, genera and species, how shall we suppose the primitive forms to which they are thus traced back, to have originated? In what manner did those first and simple structures which furnished the starting point to this mighty series of developments come into existence? Between the humblest animal or even plant, and the most complex inorganic body, there is a chasm, not so wide or deep perhaps, but as absolutely impassable as that which separates man himself from the brute matter around him; and as well might we suppose the latter with all his wonderful corporeal and spiritual endowments, to have been formed through the mere operation of natural laws, as attribute the former to a like origin. From what source then did these first organic beings, these original progenitors of all the different families and tribes of such beings, derive their existence?

But passing over this difficulty, we say that the explanation which is given of the subsequent multiplication of genera and species is by no means satisfactory. Nay, it would be hardly possible to conceive of one less so. It is in itself wild and extravagant to the very borders of absurdity. It is moreover in direct violation of the great law of reproduction the law by which throughout the organic world like everywhere produces like from which not a single departure has been known from the epoch of the earliest observation down to the present time. Nor is the explanation supported by any real analogies. The illustration drawn from the calculating engine, as we have already seen, fails to meet the case. Neither are the metamorphoses which many insects undergo in arriving at their perfect state, at all more in point. Within the envelopes of the caterpillar may already be detected the germs of both the chrysalis and the butterfly. And even in those more remarkable families, such as the aphides and the circaria where the cycle of existence is completed only in many successive VOL. VII. No. 26. 30

generations, several of these generations may be seen inclosed within the same general covering. When animals of different species, instead of individuals of the same species, in different stages of their development, shall be found thus wrapped up within one another; when the embryo of the frog shall be discovered in the fish, of the elephant in the horse, and of the man in the monkey; then, and not till then, can the transformations of insects be adduced in support of the remarkable theory which we are now considering.

Nor is this all. Besides the extravagant character of the supposition, besides its incompatibility with one of the best established laws of nature and its entire want of support from any known facts or even analogies, we say it is, further, not in harmony with discoveries made concerning the extinct races which have peopled our globe. The transformation of the caterpillar into the chrysalis is attended by the disappearance of the caterpillar, and the transformation of the chrysalis into the butterfly is attended by the disappearance of the chrysalis. In the same way, when in accordance with this theory one species, after a certain number of generations, is converted into another, the former of these species should no longer be seen; or in other words, the introduction of every new plant or animal should be accompanied by the disappearance of one of those which had previously existed. Now such is by no means the case. As we ascend from the deeper to the more superficial layers of the earth's crust, new species on the one hand make their appearance while the old still remain; and old species, on the other, cease to occur, without their place being supplied by new ones. There is no such correspondence between the two classes of phenomena as to afford ground for the belief, or leave room for the supposition even, that they are in any manner dependent upon one another. That the same changes in the physical condition of our planet which caused the destruction of the extinct races, prepared the way for their living successors, is undoubtedly true; but beyond this, there are no indications of any connection whatever between them. The theory of the transmutation of species cannot therefore be maintained. It is directly at variance with the universal experience of mankind; and even were it ever so perfectly in accordance with that experience, it fails to account for the facts which it is specially designed to explain.

In what other way, then, may we suppose the different organic races to have originated, without having recourse to the idea of an intelligent and designing Creator? One other, and so far as we can see only one other, can be conceived. It is the existence somewhere in connection with our planet, in air, earth, or water, of a special organism fitted for elaborating the different forms of animal and vegetable life, and send

« PreviousContinue »