Man and Men in Nature

THERE is something dramatic in the present attitude of thinking men towards the great question of man’s relation to the Cosmos. Of old this problem was one for mild speculation, in which the matter was so intangible that few set much store by the interpretations given it. At most, the philosophers who spun fancies came, through the sense of property, to feel that their ideas had an enduring value. People in general attached no importance to such efforts at explaining what seemed to be permanently unknowable. With the advance of modern learning, by observational methods which have conquered great realms for the understanding, presenting the gains in the tangible form of immediately serviceable knowledge, all intelligent men have come to see that barriers which of old appeared to be impassable are everywhere breaking down, and that substantial knowledge may be gained concerning fields which in the days of their fathers seemed to be wrapped in eternal darkness. In this age, people who consider such questions are divided into two parties : a small force of men engaged in an earnest struggle with the unknown, fighting their way along the paths which they are breaking, too busy with their contests to do more than assure and chronicle their victories ; and the greater host who await impatiently the answer to the eager questioning which they make as to the meaning of these discoveries in terms of hope and duty. However faithful to the past, it is only the unintelligent who fail of interest in this marvelous work of modern science. All well-informed men, even those who profess skepticism concerning the new revelation, feel the stir of doubt and of expectation. Whether they will or no, they are compelled to go forth on the great march towards a promised but unknown land. They may regret the fleshpots of Egypt, and the other charms of the dear, well-known world they have left behind, but they are forced to dream and question concerning the fields which are to be the seat of their new life. All great wanderings of folk are tragedies, whether they be over the desert of reality or the ideal wastes of belief.

In the thirty years which have elapsed since the evolutionary hypotheses of the Darwinian school began to enter the minds of the people there has been a rapid, and on the whole very successful organization of the intellectual migration which it required of men. It was, in the first place, necessary to raise up a generation of inquirers who should he trained in the methods whereby the paths to further understanding could be properly opened. Next, it was essential that a class of interpreters should be created who would in a way translate the scientific results into forms which would serve to lead the masses onward. Nothing so well shows the modern gain in the vitality of our intellectual societies as the speed with which this readjustment has been accomplished. There are now hundreds, if not thousands, of welltrained men who have been educated in the manner which was necessary to fit them for work in breaking the ways into the wilderness which the derivative hypothesis opened to us. On every side there are arising men of another class whose task it is to set the new - found truth clearly before the people, so that they may make that precious use of it which pertains to the conduct of life.

Among the many works which have been put forth during the last ten years, having for their purpose the extension of the derivative hypothesis to affairs of immediate and evident interest to man, that of Dr. Henry Drummond may, on many accounts, claim the foremost place.¹ In judging such a work as this, the reader must bear in mind the peculiar needs and dangers which pertain to the author’s task. The end to be attained is so far different from that of the investigator as to demand a totally different method of treatment from that which has to be pursued where the aim is scientific inquiry. The popularizer in this field cannot do much, even in the way of cataloguing acts or weighing their precise value, else he would risk the failure of his purpose by wearying people who have no appetite for such methodical presentations. With the minimum of telling incident as a text, he has to lead his hearers or readers, in part by their general understanding, and even more by their emotions, into the field of moral improvement. Ugly-minded critics might declare that the test of success in such endeavor was that which is said to have been of old applied to the Spanish barber’s apprentice, when his fitness to be a journeyman was essayed ; the trial consisting in his showing the skill necessary to whip an ounce of soap into a barrel of lather. But such criticism would be unjust. All who have undertaken to bring the truths of science, particularly those which have a moral bearing, in a profitable way before laymen are compelled to recognize the primal conditions which determine success. In such work, the teacher has, in a manner, to play the part of a prophet; he has to go to the utmost verge of the limits which the facts under consideration will permit; he has to illustrate by analogy and metaphor in order that lie may approach persons not habituated to scientific methods, and who could in no wise be enlivened by the recital of bare facts. From the point of view of accuracy judged by the detail of work, this peculiar task is so difficult that it may be said never to have been done in a thoroughly commendable way; estimated, however, as it should be, by the general effect of the picture which the popularizer endeavors to present, much of this work has a very great value. Thus taken, Dr. Drummond’s Ascent of Man must be considered as an admirable sketch, setting forth with singular clearness, and with an amazing readiness in seizing on the ways of approaching the public, certain of the more noteworthy discoveries of biologists which have a bearing on the conduct of life.

There can be no question that Dr. Drummond is, by nature and training, very well equipped for the work which he seeks to do. To a good general knowledge of science, and enough acquaintance with its methods to enable him readily to grasp the results of inquiry, he adds a singularly intense moral interest in people, and, what naturally goes therewith, a very great power of conveying general impressions by means of metaphor. Those who would understand the unprecedented success which has attended his labors will do well to read this work, paying attention to the means by which he instinctively seeks access to the reader’s mind. In almost every sentence this object is gained by some comparison of a familiar kind, which has a certain spiritual significance. The critic of details can find imperfections in the connotative value of each of these similes ; but if he take a larger view, he will observe that when accumulated, as they are, to the number of thousands, the separate fragments, like the imperfectly shaped stones of a mosaic, lend themselves to a large and most impressive effect, — an effect which could be gained in no other way.

The main theme of the Ascent of Man is a protest against the interpretation of organic nature which is presented to us by the Darwinian conception of the struggle for life. Against this essentially Hedonistic view the author sets the facts which tend to show that along with the contest for individual success there goes as constant and an even stronger endeavor to help the life of others. At the outset of the work there is more than a trace of mysticism, a quality of mind which is always present in Dr. Drummond’s thought. He sums up his chapter on The Missing Factor in Current Theories by the statement that “ Evolution is nothing but the Involution of Love, the Revelation of Infinite Spirit, the Eternal Life returning to itself.” He begins the third chapter with the remarkable question, “ Why was Evolution the Method chosen ? ” In such inside views of creation the writer is seen at his worst, for in this part of his discourse he absolutely departs from the ways of science. He asks, “ Can we perceive no high design in selecting this particular design, no worthy ethical result which should justify the conception as well as the execution of Evolution ? ” Further on he suggests: “Nature may have entrusted the further building to mankind, but the plan has never left her hands; the lines of the future are to be learned from her past, and her fellow - helpers can most easily, most loyally, and most perfectly do their part by studying closely the architecture of the earlier world, and continuing the half - finished structure symmetrically to the top. The information necessary to complete the work with architectural consistency lies with Nature. We might expect that it should he there. When a business is transferred or a partner assumed, the books are shown, the methods of the business explained, and its future developments pointed out. All this is now done for the evolution of mankind. In evolution Creation has shown her hand. To have kept the secret from man would have imperiled further evolution ; to have revealed it sooner had been premature. Love must come before knowledge, for knowledge is the instrument of Love, and useless till it arrives. . . . The past of Nature is a working model of how worlds can be made. The probabilities are that there is no better way of making them.”

The contrast between Dr. Drummond’s optimistic and metaphoric way of dealing with the organic problem and that followed by the hard-minded Huxley is shown in these pages by numerous quotations from that man of science. The pure investigator, transferring the data and conclusions of biologic inquiry to the social question, and making no allowance for the present action and future influence of the spiritual forces which control the development of man, becomes as pessimistic as Schopenhauer, and says, “ If there is no hope of a large improvement,” he should “ hail the advent of some kindly comet which would sweep the whole affair away.” Drummond, with his keen and abiding sense of the spiritual tides, is eagerly confident of man’s on-going, and looks upon the existing evils as mere fragments of the scaffolding by which our social system has been elevated. Although in his treatment of the matter with which he deals Drummond cannot be regarded as a man of science, his point of view is essentially truer to the conditions of inquiry than that which is taken by the illustrious naturalist with whom he is contending ; and this for the reason that he endeavors, however unsuccessfully, to deal with man from the standpoint of the vast complex of influences, spiritual as well as physical, which are working in our kind.

In the second chapter, which is entitled The Scaffolding left in the Body, Dr. Drummond is seen at his best, both as to the range of his knowledge and the method of presentation. So far as it goes — it is all too short — this is about the best popular presentation of those evidences which show clearly to intelligent people, not professionally engaged in science, the reasons which compel us to believe that man has come up from the lower life. Though our author clearly enjoys his wanderings through the fields of physical and organic evolution, — where, after the manner of Dante in his course through the shadowy realm, he is ever accompanied by the personification of evolution, — he feels himself at his best, and perhaps does the best work for his audience, when, in the middle of his book, he enters on the field of social development. In his chapters on the struggle for life and that on the struggle for the life of others he preaches excellent sermons, well calculated to persuade the mind to the belief that these diverse modes of working are not essentially discordant, but that they all operate to insure intellectual and moral advance. The exposition here goes forward with delightful movement; even where the critic notes illogical personifications and assumptions concerning the motives of action, he finds himself borne along by the emotional tide which the admirable imagery arouses. It is only when he turns back, and with skeptic humor notes the departures from the scientific method, that he feels how far the writer has allowed himself to be carried away by the poetic impulse. As an instance of this we may note his statements on page 225 concerning the influences which lead to the division of cells. After setting forth in a very fair way the view held by some histologists as to the cause of cell division, he says : “ As growth continues, the waste begins to exceed the power of repair, and the life of the cell is again threatened. The alternatives are obvious. It must divide, or die. If it divides, what has saved its life ? Self-sacrifice. By giving up its life as an individual, it has brought forth two individuals, and these will one day repeat the surrender. Here, with differences appropriate to their distinctive spheres, is the first great act of the moral life.” It is surely excessive to term moral a process such as cell division, which, so far as we can see, is as much in the control of the unthinking and unfeeling aggregate as are the shapings of crystals or the segregations which led to the separation of the heavenly bodies from a nebulous mass. The chapters on the evolution of a mother and the evolution of a father are, from the point of view of the needs of the general public, excellent writing. The exploration of these fields demands much exercise of the imagination, yet the ever ready fancy of the author is well supported by a compact and trustworthy statement of the facts from which he takes his successive flights.

As a whole, Dr. Drummond’s book may best be looked upon as a poem in prose form. It may well, for the sake of contrast, be compared with that of Lucretius. If the reader will essay this task, he will discern not only the value of the poetic presentation of scientific hypotheses in developing the states of mind of men which affect their attitude towards nature, but he may also note a matter of transcendent importance ; that is, the influence which the introduction of spiritual concepts has had in qualifying the understandings with which man meets his environment.

Although Mr. Kidd’s Social Evolution ² is to be classed with Dr. Drummond’s work, for the reason that it also essays the interpretation of duty in the light of the derivative hypothesis, it differs from the Ascent of Man in motive and method of presentation in a very essential way. The methods and temper of Social Evolution are more distinctly scientific than they are in most books which endeavor to import the spirit of biological inquiry in the study of the phenomena of civilization. The aim of Mr. Kidd is to trace, in the manner of the naturalist who is following the development of an organic series on the line of distinctly visible and measurable fact, the conditions of human advance. It is an inquiry which has for its object a criticism of the projects which are brought forward by the thinking members of the socialist party. His main contentions are, that natural selection still operates effectively and with very advantageous results among the individuals of our advanced societies, and is also of determining value in deciding the survivals of peoples ; that, so far as the reason is concerned, it acts in no wise to diminish the greed of the individual man, but ever must lead him on the paths of self-seeking; and, furthermore, that the only corrective to the remorseless struggle which individual men make for their personal gratification, the only motive to which we may look for the elevation of our societies above the beastly plane of pure self-seeking, is that form of sympathy which is known as religion.

This bald statement of the thread of theory which runs through Mr. Kidd’s admirable book gives little idea of its quality. At every step of his presentation, he shows an admirable combination of the motives of the inquirer and a knowledge of his methods along with a keen sense of those scarcely visible impulses which guide in his process of social evolution. In his first chapter, entitled The Outlook, the writer presents a grim picture of the present conditions of our economic system, and of the inadequacy of the old-school political economy to take due account of the situation. He then turns to the conditions of human progress, and endeavors to show that there is no rational sanction for it. This leads him to study the function of religious beliefs, and to the conclusion that “ a rational religion is a scientific impossibility, representing from the nature of the case an inherent contradiction of terms ; ” and further, “ a religion is a form of belief providing an ultra-rational sanction for that large class of conduct of the individual where his interests and the interests of the social organism are antagonistic, and by which the former are rendered subordinate to the latter in the general interests of the evolution which the race is undergoing.” On this foundation, whether well established or not, yet admirably stated, the author proceeds to build a very remarkable account as to the condition of western civilization ; that is, the civilization of Europe and the colonies which it has sent forth. He attributes the singular success of these peoples not to their intellectual quality, which, following Galton, he deems much below that of the Athenians, but to the extent to which the folk are penetrated with the spirit of altruism. Pursuing the same thread of thought, he analyzes modern socialism, showing very clearly that the immediate motive of the socialistic party is the welfare of the individual rather than the higher good of the race. Following the path traced by Weisniann, he maintains that any society in which the element of struggle should be eliminated would inevitably experience a decline of all those influences which make for physical, intellectual, and moral progress. This view, which is elaborated in some detail, constitutes the largest and most philosophical objection which has yet been made to the scheme of Marx and his followers.

After his review of existing conditions the writer returns to his main point, which is thus stated: “The evolution which is slowly proceeding in human society is not primarily intellectual, but religious in character.” He holds in general to the doctrine that the measure of power, as represented both by endurance and expansion, among the peoples of the present age is essentially determined by the share which they possess of the religious motive as represented by their sympathetic action, He endeavors to explain the decay and overthrow of the Greek and Roman societies, masterful though they were in the intellectual realm, by the lack of the altruistic impulses among the dominant classes of those peoples. In this clever analysis and admirable exposition of great events the reader will find, if he look closely to the argument, the dangerous if not fatal error which characterizes our author’s work, one indeed which is apt to prove the pitfall in all such speculations. To attribute the decay of the Hellenic and Roman societies, altogether or even in the main, to the prevailing lack of sympathy of the higher class with the lower, or of fellow - man with fellow - man, is tacitly to assume that this vast entanglement of action, which among certain peoples makes for culture and perpetuity, can he explained by dealing with a single factor. It might well be maintained that the element of sympathy had a place in the vast equation winch determined that the leading Mediterranean peoples should go down, and in the end he overwhelmed by Gothic invasions. But the student who has brought himself to conceive the little which any man can yet take into mind of the forces which decide the fate of nations will revolt against such uncritical judgments. There is danger indeed that, finding the writer thus weak in one of his strongest affirmations, he will overlook the real and very great value of the work which he has done.

It is the characteristic yet inevitable weakness not only of the works we are considering in this writing, but of all the other essays which have been written or are likely soon to be produced concerning society, that they take hold on special influences which are doubtless of real value in the plexus of actions, but which cannot, in the existing state of our knowledge, or even of our methods in sociology, be proved to have a dominant constructive value. The result of all such work is not an account of the doings and the fate of men. It is doubtful whether we shall ever attain to that result. Even when the analysis of the motives is complete, the task of synthesis which will have to be done is evidently so complicated as to transcend the measure of human capacity. The great difficulty of making such a combination arises from the fact that Whenever one series of actions in a particular body, whether it be that of an individual or of a society, is affected by another series, the consequences, as in the physical world, are essentially unforeseeable. They may occur very suddenly, and under conditions which, make it practically impossible to prove the steps of the derivation.

When we study the association of parts and functions which make up the body of the simplest organism, we find that our labors, however far they may be carried, do not lead us to any conception of a working formula by which we may express the interaction of the body. How then can we hope to unravel the conditions of working of such a structure as a human society, into which go, as determining influences, not only the quality of each individual of the association, but the historic value of all those which have had a part in the social development ? Accepting this view of the situation, should we condemn as fruitless or misleading such essays as these of Dr. Drummond and Mr. Kidd ? Certainly not, for they are profoundly helpful, inasmuch as they present to us in a vivid way the vast complication and historic meaning of civilization. They do not lead to conclusions, — for that matter, science at its best rarely leads to such, — but they develop states of mind as to man’s place and duty which are of infinite importance in the conduct of life. We should welcome all such works and seek their dissemination, for the reason, if for no other, that they will serve in an immediate way to make head against that combination of dreaming and ignorance which is manifesting itself in the destructive schemes of Nihilists and the subverting projects of certain socialistic leaders. It is evident that society has its account to settle with these people, and all that we can do towards showing them the complicated and critical condition of civilization will serve to make the reckoning easier. Before we proceed by the ancient way of the sword it is clearly our duty to exhaust the more modern resources of instruction and argument.