The origin and nature of man

Preface

Our knowledge of a thing is in proportion to our knowledge of its causes ; and a thing is not fully or truly known until all its causes are known.

The causes are the antecedents necessarily involved in the production of a thing.

Every work of design has four causes : the final cause, the formal cause, the material cause, and the' efficient cause. If any one of these causes is lacking, the thing can never come into existence.

The final cause is the purpose for which a thing is designed. The formal cause is the ideal or form existing in the mind before embodiment. The material cause is the substance which embodies the form. The efficient cause is the agency employed to perform the work of construction.

Take the case of a boat. There is first the purpose to construct something that will ctoy a man dry upon water. Secondly, and perhaps simultaneously, there is the mental vision or form of the thing afloat. Then there is the material out of which the boat is made. Lastly, there is the agency or instrument needed to construct it.

The material cause, or the substance of which a

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thing is made, is that which first presents itself to the mind of the observer, and it may even engross his whole attention ; but the final cause, or the purpose, is that which first presents itself to the mind of the designer. Before an observer can see clearly or know truly he must place himself in imagination in the position of the designer, though it may seem to him like putting the first last and the last first.

The final cause is absolutely definite and unchangeable. The designer of a boat has the definite purpose to go upon the water. The formal cause is also definite and constant in essence ; though, in the case of the boat, it may be a vision in the imagination of a tree-trunk hollowed out on one side, or a wicker basket made water-tight, or a number of skins fastened on a framework, or a deep trough of metal. The material cause varies with accidents of time and place, so that it is inconstant in its essence. The efficient cause of the boat may be labour with the aid of fire, or flint, or thread, or glue, or steel, according to circumstances.

Physics, as Bacon has observed, inquires into material and efficient causes, which are not necessarily constant; and therefore physics is said to be vague and unstable as to causes. Metaphysics inquires into formal and final causes, which are always essentially constant ; and therefore the study of metaphysics is the only path to certainty and satisfaction. Material and efficient causes are temporal and phenomenal in essence ; formal and final causes are ultimate and eternal in essence.

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The final cause is the essential object of attention; for without knowledge of it we cannot be truly said to know anything. The most valuable machine can have no existence for us as a machine until we know what it was made for. The most powerful voltaic battery may seem a mere useless accumulation of material to a man who knows nothing of its purpose. Without knowledge of the final cause we are in darkness.

The final cause may be taught, at least partially ; and the knowledge thus gained helps to reveal the formal cause. The formal cause must be seen by spiritual vision, or by intuitive perception, and knowledge of the final cause is a necessary antecedent and accompaniment of the vision. The more complex a machine the more numerous and interdependent are the objects of design involved in its production. A modern printing machine not only imparts information by print, but combines many designs to work in harmony ; so that the final purpose is accomplished along with and by means of a multitude of subsidiary purposes. Concentration of attention upon the machinery may be so intense, and the multiplicity of wonderful designs may be so interesting, that the mechanic may have little time for reading, or may even be ignorant of letters ; while the complexity may be so great and the details so numerous that the scholar who is served by the machine may not understand its construction. Complete satisfaction of mind can only be obtained by knowledge of all the causes ; but the mechanic who attends only to the material and efficient causes, which are variable and temporary in essence, cannot have the

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consciousness of satisfaction of his higher nature which is possessed by the scholar who knows nothing of the machine but its final cause.

All the materials, and forces, and designs in Nature enter into the causation of Man, since the influence of every element upon him had to be taken into account in order to provide him with power over his environment ; and hence man must be studied as the most complex of all machines, and has been described as the microcosm, or the epitome of the universe, which is the macrocosm. He is in design the heir of all the ages; and to know himself even physically demands a knowledge of all Nature, since everything in the universe has a complex influence upon the human organism within the sphere of its action.

The mere physical investigator studies the material cause of man, and neglects consideration of the other causes, so that he can never realty know anything of Man as Man. He counts his bones, examines his various organs, learns the microscopic structure of his tissues and their chemical composition ; but does not inquire whence he comes nor wh}- he exists. The theory of evolution is based on the knowledge acquired by the student of the material, and attempts to discover the efficient cause without thinking of either the formal or the final cause ; so that man is seen as a particle of protoplasm emerging out of darkness to develop into a sensitive, dissatisfied animal, engaged in a struggle for permanent existence which is utterly hopeless, since he invariably ends in decomposition.

Many philosophers of the East and of Greece

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endeavoured to see the Formal Cause of man ; and their efforts approached success just in proportion to their knowledge and observance of the final cause. The most ancient books in the world are described as Sacred Books, and have been preserved throughout the ages with the most extraordinary care, though their custodians were often unable to give any sufficient reason for attaching so much importance to them. Why do so many intelligent men devote themselves to the study of the Bible, and spend their money in its circulation ? Why should they be anxious to have it taught in schools ? They try to explain their action by saying that it reveals the wa}^ of salvation ; but the reply has little meaning for many questioners. The importance of Sacred Books depends upon the fact that they attempt to reveal the unchangeable causes of man, and thus to provide the means of obtaining the complete satisfaction of mind called salvation.

The permanent and supreme importance of the Bible depends upon the knowledge it imparts of the Formal Cause, or, Archetypal Man, and of the final cause, or the purpose for which man exists, and his relation to the Creator. Thus the mind that has no book of instruction but the Bible is conscious of resting upon a secure and immovable foundation, and so has a sense of satisfaction which cannot be otherwise obtained.

The Book of Genesis teaches that the material cause of man is the dust of the earth, which is alwaj^s changing in position and composition ; that the efficient cause is the Will of the Divine Mind acting

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upon the material and physical ; that the formal cause is the Archetypal Man, existing from all eternity in the Imagination of the Creator, or in the Bosom of the Father; and that the final cause is to love and serve the Creator. The fundamental questions of philosophy are thus answered and the soul is satisfied.

Many who have the consciousness of satisfaction never dream of trying to investigate the conditions upon which health of mind depends, as those who enjoy the best health are often least disposed to analyse their food. The secret of secrets is learned by exercising the will in harmony with the final cause, which alone gives enlightenment ; and permanent health of body and mind is the test by which we may know whether a theory of the nature of man is true or false. Man must be in a state of bewilderment until he knows why he exists and what he ought to do ; and hence the Westminster Divines, recognising the essential foundation of all true religion and philosophy, gave the first place in their “ Shorter Catechism ” to the question, “ What is the chief end of man ? ”

Alone, in silence, Adam dwells in Space,

And seeks in vain the Light of Life to find;

Till, through the darkness, softly beams a Face,

And what seemed dead reveals a Loving Mind.

Dumb and unconscious Nature seems to rest :

A voice sounds sweetly in the listening ears;

The Word that dures for ever is exprest,

And Truth proclaims herself to him who hears.

Contents

Preface .

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iii

Chapter I. Analysis

Natural Curiosity as to Origin. Puzzles of Materialism. Relation of Protoplasm to Life. Attempts to form Protoplasm, Goethe on Formation of Man. What is Man ?

The Microscopist. Importance of the Cell. Life Disembodied ........ . — 34

Chapter II. Evolution

Huxley on Evolution. Science and Supernatural Interference. Confidence of Ancients in Ruler rather than in Law, Growth of Science by Elimination of supposed Supernatural Action. Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace. Herbert Spencer’s View of Evolution. Conflict of Evolution and Religion. Views of Huxley, Spencer, and Haeckel. Lack of Definition causes Confusion 35 — 80

CHAPTER HI.

EVOLUTION {continued).

Are Species Permanent ? Science Depends on Absence of Supernatural Interference. Work of Harvey, Newton, Linnaeus, Buffon, Kant, Goethe, Laplace, Schleiden, and Schwann in proving Unity of Nature. Theories of Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin. Rapid Progress of

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Science. Theory of Charles Darwin. Huxley Saved from Perplexity by Theory of Natural Selection. Antiquity of Man. Ancient Civilisation . . 8i — 134

CHAPTER IV. EVOLUTION {continued)

Theory of Grades of Humanity. Livingstone’s Opinion ot Savages. Does History Teach Evolution or Degradation of Man ? Moral Results of Belief in Evolution. Constancy of Species. Who are the Fittest to Survive ? Were the Ancients Naturally Inferior? Ancient Belief in Perfect Ideals, or Archetypal Forms . . . 135 — 192

CHAPTER V. Intuition

Vision of Formal Cause or Perfect Ideal. The Seer. The Spiritual Genius. The Moral Genius or Prophet. The Poet as Genius. Defects of the Genius. Heredity of Genius ......... 193 — 236

CHAPTER VI. INTUITION {continued)

Genius Incomprehensible to mere Human Animals, and supposed to be Related to Insanity. Why Genius is Confounded with Insanity by the Animal Man. Goethe as Teacher of the Way to Discover Archetypal Forms. Intelligence Unsatisfied until Formal and Final Cause are known 237 — 285

Chapter VII. The Bible

All Sacred Writings Treat of the Origin and Nature of Man. The Days of Creation in the Light of Science. The Nature of Man. Relation of Man and Woman . 286 — 32

CONTENTS.

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CHAPTER VIII. THE BIBLE (continued)

PAGE

Origin of Evil. Nature of Man Corrupted. Weakness of Woman. Power of the Adversary. Adam as Teacher. Language and Religion of Adam .... 326 — 379

Chapter IX. The Formal Cause; Or, The Archetypal Man

Primitive Man in History. Religion in Ancient Egypt. Moral Standard of Primitive Man. Hebrew Theology and Religion. Hindu Recognition of the Archetypal Man. Influence of Solomon. Hebrews in Babylon. Worship of the Archetypal Man in Persia, India, and China. Buddha and Confucius as Teachers of Primitive Religion, which is Founded on Recognition of the Archetypal Man 380 — 479

THE

ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN.

Chapter I. Analysis

One of the peculiar endowments which proclaim the impassable gulf between man and the brute creation is the desire to study his own origin. He has an instinctive longing to look before and after his earthly existence ; and Nature never imparts an instinctive longing without providing the means of gratifying it. Power is given to obtain the food necessary for the satisfaction of the needs of the organism.

In some reflections on the history of a soul, Olive Schreiner thus emphasises the inquiry which is of utmost interest to every intelligent child : — “ Then there is remembrance of the pride when, on someone’s shoulder, with our arms around their head, we ride to see the little pigs, the new little pigs, with their curled tails and tiny snouts — where do they come from ? ”

All parents well know how persistent are the efforts of the little ones to find out the origin of the baby ; and the difficulty of answering their questions seems to become greater as knowledge increases. The pious

O.M. B

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parents of former times were able to give temporary rest to the inquiring spirits by replying that God mysteriously sends babies to be reared for Him, and that we are all His children. Little people who longed to wade in deep water were thus made content to wait until they had grown bigger. There was consciousness of the presence of the Infinite Father, and all questioning was silenced in awe before the profoundest of mysteries.

It was an advantage and a comfort to have God to fall back upon. Parents and children felt more blended in harmony when bowing together before the Creator. Reverence for Infinite Wisdom has necessarily an ennobling effect ; and among the pious thinkers, flippant conceit found no toad-stool on which to exalt itself. Philosophers as well as children were delighted with an account of the origin of the baby like that given by George Macdonald —

“ Where did you come from, baby dear ?

Out of the everywhere into here.

* * * *

How did they all just come to be you ?

God thought about me, and so I grew.

But how did you come to us, you dear ?

God thought about you, and so I am here.”

Those who ascribe the origin of man and of all things to God find it difficult to enter into the state of mind of a thinker who never thinks of the Creator; just as those who have always lived in a comfortable home with sympathetic relatives can hardly imagine the mental solitude of an intelligent man who has been a foundling

ANALYSIS.

reared in a workhouse without the slightest notion of relationship to any living being. Such a foundling is sometimes almost bewildered when thinking of his origin, and feels as lonely on the earth as if he had fallen out of the clouds.

The materialist is lonely and puzzled ; and he becomes more and more so as his intellect is more cultivated and trained to physical research without any gleam of light from the perception of metaphysical causes. What can he think of the origin of things ? He must assume the eternal self-existence of matter and force ; and the only explanation of the origin of living beings he can imagine is by spontaneous combination of chemical elements in hot and moist soil. Man seems to be accounted for by supposing these lower forms of life to have gone on by evolution into higher and higher forms under the influence of natural causes. Thus the origin of man is traced to the spontaneous combination of inorganic material ; and there seems no reason why it should not be possible to set up such combination by artificial means.

The religious thinker says, with Lord Kelvin, that it is not in dead matter we live and move and have our being, but in the creating and directing Power which science compels us to accept as an article of belief; and beyond all gravitational, physical, and chemical forces, he recognises a vital principle. The materialist says experience has never discovered a single force which is not dependent upon matter, or a single form of energy which is not exerted by material movement ; and he assumes that because he does not know any such force

THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN.

or energy no one else can know, and that no such force or energy can exist because he does not understand how it exists. Thus the materialist is necessarily in a state of intellectual confusion, and unable to perceive the limits of his knowledge and the extent of his ignorance. He will not believe that there is a spiritual world to be known.

When man is decomposed by fire or other means, he is reduced to gases and ashes ; and his origin is thus apparently proved to be in dust and ashes, or in inorganic matter. This seems to be his material cause. The secret of the method of combining again the chemical elements so as to form the man has not yet been discovered ; and the Resurrection seems likely to remain the ideal dream of the scientific imagination until the Power that first produced protoplasm chooses to act in the necessary manner upon the scattered atoms. The efficient cause cannot be found in the laboratory.

We have to find the origin of matter and the origin of protoplasm in order to learn the ultimate nature of the material cause of man.

The origin of matter is generally admitted to be a mystery transcending the limitations of human faculties ; and yet the development of man’s higher nature depends on his efforts to comprehend the incomprehensible, and to grasp all time and space with his finite mind. As the result of attempting the impossible the thinker discovers laws governing the movements of matter ; and is even able to gratify his intellect with some explanation of such manifestations, of force as heat, and light, and electricity.

ANALYSIS.

We may imagine that every atom of matter is composed of myriads of particles, or ions, of unimaginable force, which somehow combine to form matter out of force. Cultivated intelligence becomes more and more difficult to satisfy, and endeavours to see by imagination into regions beyond the visible ; and, in order to form some explanation of the method of propagation of light and transference of energy in space, creates an imaginary substance, the ether, with which it fills all space beyond the farthest stars, and even fills the unimaginable interstices between unimaginable atoms. Ether is not solid, nor liquid, nor gaseous; it has no density or weight, and is not appreciable by any sense or by any instrument; yet human intelligence calculates a theoretical weight for it, and estimates the resistance it offers to comets in their apparently erratic course. Ether seems to provide a kind of resting-place for the mind between the atom and nothingness; and it may be supposed to be the medium in which force and matter meet and blend into something perceptible by sense. Then the question remains, ‘‘ What caused the origin of the ether and made force begin to act ? ”

Life is a most perplexing mystery to the materialist. He is disposed to assume that it is eternally self-existent ; but no one with knowledge of science and history, or with capacity for profound thought, is able to believe this. Science convinces us that life must have had a beginning ; so, if we are anxious to avoid acknowledging the existence of the Creator, we must shut our eyes to the gap between the inorganic

THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN.

and the organic, or try to fill up the gap with a fog of words and fancy that we have made a solid bridge. We may repeat the word spontaneous.

Ancient sages sought to penetrate the great mysteries of existence by intuition, or by the vision of formal causes ; and they sometimes concentrated attention so much upon the heavens that they broke their limbs by stumbling over obstacles upon the ground. The modern investigator has a tendency to try to analyse everything, and to seek satisfaction by burrowing in the earth until he loses sight of the heavens ; and then he may die in the darkness, suffocated by the products of his own toil. Sages who would gain sound knowledge by intuition must stand upon a stable material basis ; and those who would penetrate deeply into the material can do so with safety so long as they breathe the Air of Heaven. Truth is one ; and all sound reasoning must lead to it. Intuition must be the flower of intellect; and analysis depends upon great fundamental principles recognised by intuition.

In the ages of faith men even of the greatest intellect were content in the recognition of supernatural causes ; and rested in the assurance that the individual begins at birth, and that the human race began by the creation of Adam and Eve out of the dust of the earth, or out of atoms of matter. Now we ask what was the first germ of the individual, and by what method man was made out of dust.

We must find living matter somehow to begin with, and then there is supposed to be evolution of the original particle. Supposing force to have effected the

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combination of atoms into living substance we have the germ of all organic beings ; for we are also asked to suppose that all organic beings are composed of the same kind of living matter. Analysis cannot discover any essential difference in composition between the protoplasm of the germ of a horse and the protoplasm of the germ of a dog ; and, in the name of science, the materialist assumes that there is no difference when we fail to perceive any. The analysis of living material presents many peculiar difficulties ; and no explanations of theorists could persuade an unsophisticated gardener that there is no difference scientifically between the seed of a pear and that of an apple because the analyst cannot find any.

The biological chemist says that man is protoplasm ; and that everything else that lives is also protoplasm. The physiological analyst proves that minute cells of protoplasm in countless myriads unite themselves into more and more complex bodies, and apparently originate special functions by increasing the complexity of structure, until, in the course of evolution, man himself appears as the body of most complicated mechanism yet produced. The physical basis of life is protoplasm ; and we know nothing of life except as it is revealed by or through protoplasm.

The cells of which man is composed have all been derived from the same source, and pass into one another by imperceptible gradations, so that no definite boundary lines can be discovered ; and it is assumed that there are no boundary lines when we cannot discover any. Brain and bone are derived from

THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN.

the same substance. The complex body with its various organs and tissues is protoplasm, and its origin is protoplasm. Thus the study of man seems resolved into the study of protoplasm. The materialist is so impressed by the infinite variety of the forms it assumes, and the amazing properties it exhibits, that he cannot imagine anything more important than the marvellous slime, so that he even confounds the thing formed with the power which formed it ; and regards protoplasm as the formative power of living beings.

Protoplasm may be said to be composed of matter, force, and life. Even supposing the eternal self-existence of matter and force, we must have a beginning for their union into living substance. The statement that life is produced by molecular groupings and motions does not afford any more intellectual satisfaction than is gained by supposing that the first germs of life fell upon the earth in cosmic dust, which had blown off remote celestial bodies in order to provide the earth with population. Such theories are as little scientific as the theory that the Milky Way is the spawning ground of the stars.

Superficial knowledge suggests the comparison of the growth of protoplasm to the growth of a crystal ; but the crystal grows siniply by accretions to its surface, whereas in protoplasm there are vital processes taking place in every cell of the substance, and also between the cells, so that growth is interstitial. In the crystal there is only chemical and mechanical change and deposition, while in the protoplasm there is formation and rejection of waste products. There is no limit to

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the growth of a crystal so long as necessary material is provided ; but life and individuality somehow govern the protoplasm. When parents see a daughter of fourteen more than six feet in height they are filled with dread that she may become a monstrous giantess. Why should she not grow to be twenty feet ?

By increasing the complexity of chemical solutions in which crystals are forming we can imitate to some extent the interstitial changes in the growth of protoplasm, for we can thus set up more and more complicated interchange of atoms or equivalents in the mass of the growing crystal ; and yet we cannot truly imitate the power which the protoplasm has of differentiating and setting apart portions of itself to form special organs which will work for the common welfare. Somehow we are conscious of an unbridged gap between the non-living and the living, and are compelled to acknowledge that there is an essential element in protoplasm which defies all the investigations of physical and chemical science.

A living being begins to exist as a material phenomenon by employing light, and heat, and the other physical forces, to build up a body out of atoms of matter. It would be absurd to suppose the individual life to be a product of the forces which it employs. -.For the formation of the most minute particle of protoplasm we must have the organising and individualising power of life.

When we speak of vital force as building up a body, we mean that individualised life has entered into the physical forces, and has combined their action for its

THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN.

own purpose. The life must come from outside the domain of physical force. Any attempt to explain the formation of a particle of protoplasm by supposing the physical forces to begin by themselves to form organised matter indicates views obscured and thoughts confused by the consumption of words which the mind has failed to digest.

To the unsophisticated it would seem evidence of lunacy for anyone to propose to form a man out of material atoms and compounds ; yet chemical discoveries, and the concentration of thought upon physical phenomena, have excited the hopes of laboratory workers to such a very high degree that nothing seems impossible to human ingenuity, industry, and skill. Many substances which a few years ago were supposed to be formed exclusively by the action of living organisms, and to be evidence of vital action, are now manufactured on a large scale as ordinary chemicals. As soon as the chemist learns the composition of any complex body by analysis, he at once sets about the task of constructing it from its elements. If protoplasm is only a complex chemical compound, it may possibly be formed synthetically in the laboratory ; and the mere physical observer does not think of it except as a variety of albumen. To the materialist a man is a complex mass of protoplasm; so that if the most simple particle can be constructed in the laboratory, there is to him the possibility of forming the complete man. Time is, no doubt, an important element in evolution, but artificial assistance may hasten natural processes.

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II

In Quain’s “ Anatomy,” which the medical student is expected to learn with unquestioning faith in the importance of every word in it, we find it stated, at page 179 of the second volume, that “ Butschli has found that if oil is rubbed up into a paste with certain alkaline salts in a moist condition, and some of the paste is examined in water, the latter diffuses into the paste and converts it into a froth, which, under the microscope, has an appearance not unlike the reticular part of protoplasm. In such a froth streaming movements may be seen, lasting for a considerable time, and changes of form may occur in the mass, due partly to continued diffusion through the soap-like envelopes of the froth-bubbles or vacuoles, and partly to the bursting of these bubbles when they become enlarged and approach the edge of the mass. Upon these observations Butschli has based a theory that all protoplasm has such a vacuolated froth-like structure, and the reticulum is only apparent, being the optical expression of the material between the vacuoles, and that the movements of protoplasm are produced by physical and chemical processes analogous to those which cause the movements within the froth of oil and salt-solution which he has employed.”

When a student is once persuaded that the movements which take place in protoplasm are produced merely by physical and chemical processes analogous to those occurring in artificial mixtures, he naturally feels that he has succeeded in getting very near to the formation of protoplasm, and that if he could only produce the proper albuminous mixture, the necessary

THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN.

physical and chemical processes might be set up by the junction of the materials. The great difficulty lies in the fact that the physical and chemical processes which take place in protoplasm, as well as the movements which produce these processes, or are produced by them, are combined to form an individual, and are only the effects of the cause which is commonly spoken of as the life.