Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

THE

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN..

PART II.

EVIDENCE AS TO MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE.

BY THOMAS H. HUXLEY, F. R. S., F. L. S.*

THIS work is especially designed for the popular mind. The author tells us, at the start, that he proposes to unfold his argument and set forth his facts, "in a form intelligible to those who possess no special acquaintance with anatomical science." Throughout his work, he carefully endeavors to bring his subject within the scope of the unlearned, though, at the same time, he affects to discuss it scientifically.

He had previously made an effort to influence the minds of the working classes of England, by oral and published Lectures "on the Origin of Species," in which he studiously seeks to disseminate the atheistical views embraced in Darwin's hypothesis, which we have already reviewed, in Part I. of this Essay.

In the present work, he continues this effort to bias the popular mind in favor of the doctrine of transmutation of species; and by an argument addressed to the unlearned, he aims to prove that Man is either the lineal descendant from the Gorilla, progeny of a common stirps.

or the

His book is divided into three parts:

Part I. is a pleasant treatise "On the Natural History of the Man-like Apes," the evident intention of which is, to awaken an interest in his subject in the mind of the public, and pre

*D. Appleton & Co., New York. 1863.

pare it for a favorable reception of his views. In regard to it we have nothing to say.

Part III. treats of the immense antiquity of some fossil remains of Man, with a view to establish the existence of a preAdamite race, holding a middle position between men and apes. As the same subject is more fully treated by Sir Charles Lyell, in his "Antiquity of Man," we will reserve our strictures on that head till we come to review his work.

Part II. of Mr. Huxley's book is by far the most important part, and contains all the evidence and the argument by which he attempts to establish his proposition. We shall therefore deal with this portion only, the first Part being merely introductory, and the last, an application of his peculiar views. Mr. Huxley opens his subject with these imposing words:

-

"The question of questions for mankind,—the problem which underlies all others, and is more deeply interesting than any other, is the ascertainment of the place which Man occupies in nature, and of his relation to the universe of things. Whence our race has come; what are the limits of our power over nature, and of nature's power over us; to what goal we are tending;-are the problems which present themselves anew, and with undiminished interest, to every man born in the world."-page 71.

This statement is undoubtedly true in regard to Man's position as an intellectual and spiritual being; but it is in no manner true in regard to his anatomical position in the Animal Kingdom, as determined by his structural affinities to the brutes, which is the only view of the question taken by Mr. Huxley.

lle not only rejects from this question all recognition of Man's existence as a spiritual being, which alone gives it importance, but he also speaks, with ill-concealed contempt, of that Revelation which his spiritual nature demands, and which human reason declares to be the only source from which any positive information can be derived in regard to the origin of our race, and the goal to which we are tending. It would seem to be a self-evident truth, that no power, save the Creator, can reveal the secret of man's origin, or his future des

tiny. Whether he has made such a revelation or not, is a fair subject for argument; but if He has not, then we must necessarily be satisfied to remain in ignorance, for human investigation is incompetent to solve the problem.

Mr. Huxley gives us to understand, at the outset, that his effort is antagonistic to Revelation, and seems to think that his scepticism redounds to the credit of his originality as a scientific investigator. In connection with the passage above quoted, he adds :

"Most of us, shrinking from the difficulties and dangers which beset the seeker after original answers to these riddles, are contented to ignore them altogether, or to smother the investigating spirit, under the feather-bed of respected and respectable tradition. But, in every age, one or two restless spirits, blessed with that constructive genius which can only build on a secure foundation, or cursed with the mere spirit of scepticism, are unable to follow in the well-worn and comfortable track of their forefathers and contemporaries, and, unmindful of thorns and stumbling blocks, strike out into paths of their own."

He thinks the importance of such an inquiry as he proposes, is intuitively manifested by the "sudden and profound mistrust of time-honored theories and strongly-rooted prejudices," awakened in the least thoughtful man when "brought face to face with these blurred copies of himself," the man-like Apes; but, "for all who are acquainted with the recent progress of the anatomical and physiological sciences," such mistrust of honored theories and dim suspicion of man's true position in nature, become conclusions from a "vast argument fraught with the deepest consequences."

No lover of truth has a right to complain of the most searching investigation into any matter which legitimately belongs to the domain of science, even if such investigation has a tendency to overturn our most cherished convictions and pre-conceived views of revealed Truth. But when the investigator goes out of his way to attack our convictions and destroy our faith in Revelation, by invoking the aid of science in support of his own speculations, he ought not to complain if his facts and his argument are also subjected to a destructive analysis ;— and if his bantling cannot survive such a process, he must be content to see it perish.

If Mr. Huxley can prove that Man came not from the hand of his Creator, as a finished master-piece which was afterwards degraded through the machinations of the Devil,--but that he is the gradual development of a Marmoset, through a long series of monkies, baboons, and "man-like Apes," till, at last, he finds his immediate progenitor in the Gorilla,-if he can prove this, we must be content to acknowledge this origin, however ignominious, and however subversive it may be of Revelation. But it behoves us to examine, with the most jealous care, the so-called scientific grounds on which such an hypothesis is based, for it involves far more than the bare question of the origin of Man. Its establishment involves the destruction of the doctrine of the Fall of Man by sin, and of his restoration by Christ, which is doubtless one of those doctrines referred to by our author as "tolerable chiefly on account of the ignorance of those by whom it was accepted." Besides this, it is subversive of many other "respectable traditions," "time-honored theories and deeply rooted prejudices," with which the wisest and purest of mankind in every age have been persistently and consistently deluded, from the dawn of history, till 1863, when Mr. Huxley arose to dissipate, with the torch of science, these mists of ignorance and delusion.

We are not called upon for any countervailing argument in support of Revelation, for the burthen of proof rests entirely with Mr. Huxley, both as regards the falsity of the Scriptures and the truth of his own proposition. Our task is a plain one; it is to carefully sift. the facts and to rigidly scrutinize the argument which he advances. The task is enhanced in importance, while at the same time it is mingled with melancholy regret, by the fact that thousands of young men, who will never see these pages, will continue to read this popular volume, and will readily accept its scientifie sophistry, as a conclusive argument against that revealed Law to which their unchastened pride of reason refuses to be subject, solely "because the carnal mind is enmity to God." The truth of this divine declaration is fully attested by the personal experience of every thoughtful moral man, whatever may be his views of Revelation.

« НазадПродовжити »