Natural theology in the nineteenth century

Front matter

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Preface

Paley thought it necessary to apologize for his 4 Natural Theology.’ He says it will be urged that his readers leave off where they began; that they never doubted the existence of a God ; and that it does not appear what is gained by researches upon a subject of which no proofs were wanted. But, he says, occurrences will arise to try the firmness of our most habitual opinions ; and upon these occasions it is matter of incalculable use to feel our foundation ; to find a support in argument for what we had taken up upon authority.

Perhaps no apology is now required for

VI

PREFACE.

any attempt to support the argument from design. The University to which I have the honour of belonging, has lately conferred an honorary degree on Mr. Darwin, whose claim to be so distinguished must rest upon the part which lie has taken in advocating the doctrine of evolution ; a doctrine which, in his hands, and still more in those of other evolutionists, whose views owe their position in public estimation in a great degree to his labours, is inconsistent with the argument from design.

Mr. Darwin, to take the view of evolution which is most favourable to the argument from design, supposes the existence of a few oiiginal forms. These forms are constantly varying in all directions ; some of the variations being to the advantage, others to the disadvantage, of the creatures in which they occur, and some being neutral. All the existing forms of life are due to the action of natural selection, in picking out

PREFACE.

Vll and preserving the variations which are advantageous.

There is a degree of hap-hazard about this theory which does not harmonize with the notion of design; and the argument from design totally vanishes when we come to the views of the more advanced evolutionists; for how is it possible to see design in automatic evolution from a bleb of jelly, itself the necessary result of accidental chemical combinations of self-existent matter ?

As these doctrines seem to be quite inconsistent witli the established religion of the country, — and indeed, if followed to what are supposed to be their necessary results, with any form of Christianity, or even with any form whatever of religious belief, — it certainly is a most remarkable fact that the University of Cambridge should have taken a step which must seem, to some extent at least, to give them its sanction. It may be said that the honour has been conferred upon

Vlll

PREFACE.

Mr. Darwin, not on account of his views as to evolution, but because of the valuable additions which, in the course of his labours on that subject, lie has made to our knowledge of Natural History, and in deference to the position which he holds in the scientific world. But any one acquainted with the University of Cambridge forty years ago, will be aware that, at that time, a far greater claim than that which Mr. Danvin now has for the distinction, would have utterly failed to obtain it for him, if coupled with the views which he holds as to evolution.

It is no doubt highly gratifying to find that the pursuit of knowledge is encouraged without regard to collateral inferences, and no one will sav that Mr. Danvin does not

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deserve the honour which he has received. Here I have noticed the fact only as conclusive evidence of the extent to which these new doctrines have taken hold of men’s minds. It is impossible to ignore their im-

PREFACE.

portance, and therefore an attempt to show that Mr. Darwin’s theory does not take from us what Paley calls u our foundation,” cannot be a useless task.

Naturalists are indignant that a lawyer should presume to meddle with their science. They say that I have never determined a single species, and that possibly I might not know whether the evidence offered by some facts in Natural History made for, or against, Mr. Darwin’s theory. I do not“ allow the force of this latter objection, though I acknowledge that I am placed at a disadvantage by my want of a practical acquaintance with Natural History. But are naturalists themselves quite free from similar difficulties ? Chemists may say that the naturalists who have laid down these new laws, are not aware of the nature of the substances with which they deal; the blebs of jelly which they consider to be the simplest beginnings of all life, are in reality, chemically, most

X

PREFACE.

complex bodies, very easily decomposed, and not at all likely to be the result of the tremendous phenomena which are supposed to have heralded the dawn of life in the world, on the cooling down of our planet. In short, chemists may say that mere naturalists are not competent by themselves to deal with the question of evolution. What then is to be done ? Are we, as one of my critics has remarked, to wait until some omniscient person makes his appearance before we consider the subject?

In another work I have examined the arguments for and against the general theory of Mr. Darwin, both as to the origin of species, and as to the descent of man from an ape-like ancestor ; and I have pointed out reasons for believing that it is in the main untenable. My son has shown the very great difficulties which, on chemical grounds, lie in the way of those theories of evolution which attribute the origin of living beings to the

PREFACE.

XL fortuitous combinations of inorganic matter. In the following pages, I propose merely to call attention to a few cases of organic structure, for which I think we shall utterly fail to account, except on the supposition of the action of an intelligent will.

Constable Burton ,

Beclale.

Chapter 1

Amount of* life in the world — Increased by the presence of beasts of prey — Number of species of animals — Adaptations of structures and instincts — No real scale of inferiority amongst living beings — Instincts of the lower animals — Universal power of sexual reproduction — The continuance of the race the great end of life — Instances of maternal care — Arguments against design: (1) the impossibility of conceiving creation ; (2) notion of beauty and design formed by what we see ; (3) the imperfection of adaptation and prodigality of waste — How did imperfect adaptation and the prodigality of waste result from the survival of the fittest? Pages 1 — 16

Chapter II

Mr. Darwin’s theory — He supposes the occurrence of variations injurious to the creature itself — Such variations almost fatal to bis theory — Immediate advantage from the variation and economy of vital expenditure two essential points in Mr. Darwin’s theory — Cases in which the theory fails as to the first of these points — Mr. Mivart’s views as to incipient forms — The Coryanthes Macrantha — Mr. Darwin’s answers to Mr. Mivart — The tendons of the hand and foot— The siphuncle of the ammonites — The same

XIV

CONTENTS.

points with reference to instincts — The young cuckoo ejecting its foster-brothers — Unsatisfactory explanation by Mr. Darwin — How did the pied wagtail acquire by natural selection the habit of enduring the young cuckoo in its nest ? — Why did the butterfly lay her eggs on the cabbage ? — The plunge of the osprey into the water — These cases incompatible with Mr. Darwin’s theory, not merely inexplicable by it . . . . Pages 17 — 34

Chapter III

Cases in which Mr. Darwin’s theory fails as to the economy of nutriment — The deciduous horns of deer may be accounted for as specially created because the surrounding conditions of life may be made to suit them — Case of artifical breeds of cattle — Deer’s horns an impossibility on the hypothesis of the survival of the fittest — Difference between the horns of deer and of the rest of the bovidse — Difficulty of accounting on the principle of utilitarian development for diversity of structure for the same purposes— Pollen of fir-trees — Reference to a plate of Coryanthes Eeilding-ii, a kindred formtoMacrantha — Comparison of this form with that of a wild rose as to facilities for fecundation — Cross-fertilization has no influence when plants are similarly situated — Is not secured by the form of Coryanthes, a point fatal to the theory of utilitarian development — Reference to plate of Nepenthes Rafflesiana — Hung round with large stomachs— Inconsistent with both points of Mr. Darwin’s theory — Cypripediiun caudatum — Bizarre form of orchids . . . Pages 35 — 58

Chapter IV

Structures unsuited or injurious to the organism — Upland geese, coot, and landrail — Are these forms really in a transition state ? — The blubber of the sperm whale — The

CONTENTS.

XV sting of the bee — The rattlesnake — Tbe rattle no increase to tbe terror of tbe snake, but a warning — Tbe roaring of lions — Tbe white tail of a rabbit injurious to it — Tbe black tail of tbe white ermine — Tbe limitation of animals tc particular kinds of food only — Hooks in tbe seeds of plants before furry animals were in existence, and lioney without bees Pages 59—71

CHAPTER Y.

Beauty in nature — Beauty in plants — In animals — Mr. Darwin on sexual selection — Tbe wing-feather of tbe Argus pheasant — Tbe red admiral and peacock butterflies — Cannot be tbe results of sexual selection — Mr. Wallace on protective and warning colours, and on mimicry — How did insects acquire tbe instinct to avail themselves of protective forms when acquired ? — Mr. Wallace, colours of male birds due to their superior vitality — Objections to tbe views of Mr. Wallace and Mr. Darwin — No increase of fertility in brilliantly- coloured creatures though they are exposed to greater danger — Sir John Lubbock’s position that birds take spotted caterpillars for snakes — Humming-birds and toucans — Beauty evidence of design

Pages 72 — 94

Chapter VI

Tbe more advanced evolutionists — Views of Huxley and Tyndall — Mr. Wallace’s view that growth in a living being is like tbe increase of a drop of dew — No analogy between tbe cases — Dying of old age and sexual reproduction cannot be results of spontaneous generation — Professor Tyndall’s view that tbe brain acts solely in obedience to impressions conveyed to it by tbe nerves — Has tbe brain any power to translate or analyze these impressions P — Case of tbe merchant receiving a telegram.

XVI

CONTENTS.

Chapter VII

Evolution with, design — The world probably formed by some law of evolution — Analogy between similar parts in different creatures, man, beasts, birds, and fishes — Humming-birds instances of probable evolution — Evolution a form of creation — Possible change in the laws of reproduction with a change of circumstances — No hint of what the law of evolution really is — Organisms do not readily change — No change during the vicissitudes of the glacial period — Great influence of locality upon form — Extinct animals of North America — Why has not natural selection reproduced anything like them ? . . . Pages 108 — 117

Chapter VIII

Summary and Conclusion . . . Pages 118 — 128

ERRATUM.

Page 62, line 20, for naturally read actually

NATURAL THEOLOGY

IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Chapter I

Amount of life in the 'world — Increased by the presence of beasts of prey — Number of species of animals — Adaptations of structures and instincts — No real scale of inferiority amongst living beings — Instincts of the lower animals — Universal power of sexual reproduction — The continuance of the race the great end of life — Instances of maternal care — Arguments against design : (1) the impossibility of conceiving creation ; (2) notion of beauty and design formed by what we see ; (3) the imperfection of adaptation and prodigality of waste— How did imperfect adaptation and the prodigality of waste result from the survival of the fittest ?

The whole economy of nature seems directed to the maintenance of the greatest possible amount of life. Wherever a fit abode for a living being exists, it is occupied. It is even very probable that the existence of carnivorous animals, though they are directly destructive to life, may in the long run be in fact an addition to the amount of animal life. Probably the amount of animal life

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AMOUNT OF LIFE IN THE WORLD. Chap. I.

that can exist in the world at any given time, depends upon the quantity of vegetable food produced. But the existence of carnivorous animals renders the whole of this food available for the sustenance of life. Young animals consume vegetable food during the season of its abundance, and becoming themselves by degrees food for other creatures, the result is the same as if the surplus vegetable food of the season of abundance was stored up for future use, instead of rotting on the ground. The reader may perhaps have noticed when travelling through the country in winter, how the herbage is economised, — dealt out by the farmers bit by bit for the sustenance of the oxen and sheep who are to furnish food for man, in one sense the most carnivorous of animals.

In the pampas of South America there are vast herds of half-wild horses and cattle, and travellers are astonished at the number of the bisons on the prairies of North America. A spectator viewing those assemblages of animals is apt to think these countries peculiarly abundant in animal life, yet space for space they are not nearly so thickly

Chap. I. NUMBER OF SPECIES

peopled with cattle as England, where no beast is allowed to live to the term of its natural life.'

A very slight peculiarity of structure fits a living being to fill a place in the polity of nature, which can be occupied by itself alone. Thus we find that if we sow a field with different kinds of grass, the produce in hay will be greater than if we sow it with one kind alone ; similar as all grasses are to each other, no single species can so occupy the field but some portion of its fertility is left vacant.

A natural result of this state of things would be, that in order that all the places in the polity of nature should be occupied, there must exist a vast number of living beings, differing only very slightly from each other ; and this we find is the case. There are, according to some naturalists, 2411, according to others, 2636 species of mammalia. There are in round numbers 10,000 species of birds, 100,000 known species of insects, and a vast number of species of the lower animals.*

* Wallace’s ‘ Geographical Distribution of Animals,’ yol. ii., p. 170.

b 2

HOUSE-FLY AND EARWIG.

Chai\ I.

There are alwa)Ts some intermediate forms which partake of the peculiarities of their neighbours, and no doubt only by this combination are enabled to find their subsistence.

It is hardly necessary to mention that the structure of all these beings is not only well adapted to their wants, but is also of a most elaborate and complex nature. The structure of the eye, the mechanism of the human body, the eggs and feathers of birds, are familiar examples of adaptation; and numerous similar instances are to be found in every department of nature, from the highest to the lowest forms. The wings of insects are as wonderful as those of birds, — witness the butterfly covered with millions of microscopic feathers, — nor are curious mechanical contrivances wanting. The foot of the house-fly is furnislied with some mechanism, probably a kind of air-pump, which enables it to walk up a smooth pane of glass. The common earwig has small wing-cases and large wings. When it alights from its flight, it has to fold up these wings in such a manner that the wing-cases may cover them. It effects this object by first

CiiAr. I.

SCALE OF INTELLIGENCE.

shutting up its wings as a lady shuts her fan, and then folding this closed fan back upon itself until it forms a square packet of a size capable of being covered by the wing-case.* The whole world of microscopic animals and vegetables abounds in instances of won-

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derful and beautiful form.

Though we speak of creatures as being lower than others in the scale of nature, it would seem that if there is any truth in the remark, we must limit it to their bodily structure as it differs from that of ourselves and the mammalia, not to their actions. Thus the tailor-bird pierces holes with its bill in the edges of two dead leaves, and then sews them together for its nest with vegetable fibres as thread, and with a neatness which would do no discredit to the artist after whom it is named. The cliadodon, an Indian fish, shoots the flies upon which it preys with a drop of water projected with unerring aim from its pointed snout.

Even insects are in this respect at least on a par with any animal not rational. We may take the web of the garden-spider as an * Kirby and Spence, Letter xxiii.

6 WATER-SPIDER AND ANT-LION. Chap. I.

example of ingenuity ; and there are spiders which enclose air in a bag made of fine web, which serves them as a kind of diving-bell when they seek to retire under water to consume their prey at leisure.*

The ant-lion, a creature which preys upon insects, and is the larva of an insect allied to the dragon-flies, is so sluggish in its motions that it has no power of capturing its prey by speed ; it therefore digs a hole in some sandy place, which serves it as a kind of pitfall, in which it entraps any insect which incautiously approaches too near the edge. The creature lies almost concealed at the bottom of its den, and throws a shower of sand over any insect which may attempt to escape by climbing the sides of the pit, and speedily brings it again to the bottom.

It is hardly necessary to mention ants and bees, which labour for the common good.

It is told of a dog, as a wonderful instance of sagacity, that having been worried by a dog much larger than himself, he brought a still larger dog of his acquaintance to avenge his ill-treatment on his adversary, yet the

* Kirby and Spence, Letter xiv.

Chap. I. INTELLIGENCE OF DOGS AND INSECTS. 7 same degree of intelligence has been observed in an ant and a beetle. Mr. Belt having almost covered an ant with a piece of clay, one of its companions attempted to relieve its imprisoned friend, but failing in the endeavour it went to the nest and shortly returned with a troop of ants, who removed the clay bit by bit and so released the prisoner.* A dung-beetle while preparing the pellet in which she was about to lay her eggs, let it fall by accident into a small depression in the ground. After trying for some time without success to recover the pellet, she went to the neighbouring dunghill and soon returned with two or three similar beetles whose united exertions extricated the pellet. f

All living beings have the power of reproducing themselves by germs, and in at least the great majority of cases, if not in all, the reproduction is sexual, — the sexes, as Paley says, being exactly fitted for each other.

Indeed the provision apparently made for the continuance of life is one of the most

* ‘ Naturalist in Nicaragua,’ p. 26.

f Kirby and Spence, Letter xxvii.

MATERNAL INSTINCTS.

Chap. I.

remarkable phenomena of nature. It is connected with the most violent and the most agreeable feelings of which animals are capable, and in many cases appears to be the great aim of their lives.

Works on Natural History are full of the most touching anecdotes of the devotion of animals to their offspring. We see that the most timid animals become fearless in defence of their young, and display a most wonderful degree of intelligence. Every one is familiar with the cunning tricks by which the hen partridge and the wild duck try to draw an enemy away from their nest or young. They flutter along the ground as if wounded, and invite pursuit until they have drawn the dangerous intruder to a safe distance, when they resume their usual mode of flight and speedily leave him ; and all this is done instinctively, for we cannot suppose the individual birds, who are the actors in the performance, to have seen it practised by others, or noticed the actions of a wounded bird ; nor if they had done so, could we suppose them capable of so perfect an imitation.*

* Duke of Argyle, ‘ Contemporary Review/ July 1875.

Chap. I.

PLANTS SEEDING PROFUSELY.

Even plants seem affected by the influence of the law of the continuance of life. Plants when weak from being placed under conditions of life which are not congenial to luxuriant growth, are known to flower and seed profusely, as if endeavouring to prevent by increased productiveness the impending extinction of their race.

Insects ‘show the most extraordinary instincts when preparing for the continuance of their species. The butterfly, th ough she herself lives upon the nectar of flowers, seems to know that her children require the grosser food afforded by a cabbage leaf, and she deposits her eggs upon plants of that kind only. The young of the gad-fly are nourished in the intestines of the horse. “ How,” says Mr. Kirby, “is the mother to introduce them to such a situation ? She lays her eggs upon the hairs of the horse, and in such parts of his body only as he can reach with his tongue ; chiefly on the shoulder and the back of the knee. The horse licks these parts, probably in consequence of the irritation caused by the small grubs, which are speedily hatched from the eggs, and thus they are transferred to his

BEAUTY AND VARIETY.

Chap. I.

intestines.” * There are innumerable similar instances amongst insects, and in these cases the parent is destined never to see the young for whom she so sedulously provides, for she perishes before they are born ; and when in their turn they have to provide for a family, they can owe no part of their skill to the instructions of their parents.

Looking at these instances of sagacity, we must feel disposed to modify our notion of a scale of inferiority existing amongst organic beings, and to consider each of them as equally perfect with regard to its place in nature. Indeed, the adaptation of each organic being to the conditions of life which surround it, the provision which is made for the well-doing of all creatures, and the manner in which they seem to keep each other within bounds, have always commanded admiration.

In addition to these adaptations and provisions, the organic world affords numerous instances of beauty and variety, — birds, insects, and flowers glow with most brilliant colours, and display most graceful forms.

As such a world as this, — so full of variety, * Kirby and Spence, Letter xi.

Chap. I. ARGUMENTS AGAINST DESIGN.

adaptation, provision, and beauty, — evidently could not have been formed by chance, men have thought themselves irresistibly led to the conclusion that it must be the result of the action of an intelligent will, — that it must be created.

The justness of this conclusion, however, has been denied, principally on three grounds : (1) the conception of a Creator is beyond the jDowers of human beings; (2) our notions of adaptation and beauty are formed from the contemplation of our world, and we are therefore not capable of knowing whether such adaptations are the best, or whether there is such a thing as beauty; (3) that the so-called provision is very incomplete, and the world in fact a scene of misery.

A writer in the ‘ Westminster Review’ for July, 1875, tells us that “ the fundamental ordinance of the Creator is an ordinance of death. The condition of existence for the lower animals is mutual destruction. As regards the human race, the volcanic eruption which destroys cities ; the earthquake which tramples them to ashes; the famine which starves a population ; the war that destroys

‘ WESTMINSTER REVIEW. ’

Chap. I.

its millions of men, that flings babes into the flames as it did in the Crusades ; the pestilence that depeoples an Athens, a Florence, or a London ; the mortality which allows but onehalf of the human race to attain the age of twelve years ; and many similar evils, — show how entirely the presumed efforts of benevolent omnipotence have failed to attain their supposed object. Still more flagrant appears the failure if we examine the question from the historical point of view. The blessings mankind now enjoy have been purchased by the sufferings and wasted lives of whole geological periods ; man has advanced only, in many thousands of generations, to such a position of comfort and dignity, that for the elite of tbe human race life is perhaps preferable to non-existence.”

This passage reminds us of Lyell’s description of the geology of the country around Naples : “It records a constant succession of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and would,” says Lyell, “ suggest the idea of a country quite unfit for the abode of man.” Yet what was the real condition of Campania during these years of dire convulsion? “A

Chap. I.

THE CAMPANIA OF NAPLES.

climate where heaven’s breath smells sweet and wooingly ; a vigorous and luxuriant nature unparalleled in its productions ; a coast which was at once the fairy-land of poets, and the favourite retreat of great men. Even the tyrants of creation loved this alluring region, spared it, adorned it, lived in it, died in it. The inhabitants, indeed, have enjoyed no immunity from the calamities which are the lot of mankind ; but the principal evils which they have suffered must be attributed to moral, not to physical, causes.” *

So the Reviewer would have but to cast a glance upon the everyday life of the world to see that it is more than endurable to the mass of mankind, and, indeed, is perhaps quite as burthensome to those whom he has described as the elite of the human race ; so true it is that there can be no permanent happiness without some degree of self-denial.

Another writer, Mr. G. Id. Lewis, says : “ Beside the few contrivances and skilful adaptations of nature, we have to admit numerous and glaring failures to attain the very end said to be designed. If we are

* Forsytes ‘ Italy,’ quoted by Lyell, yol. i. p. 605.

PRODIGALITY OF WASTE.

Chap. I.

allowed to speak of the exquisite contrivances with which ends are reached, we cannot disregard the bungling failures by which those ends are missed ; yet naturalists bent on theological illustration, eloquently discourse on the skill displayed by nature in her manifold methods of securing the fertilization of ova in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and leave unnoticed the equally patent fact that for every seed or egg fertilized, thousands are produced which never fulfil the end for which they were designed. The prodigality of waste is far more conspicuous than the

economy of which so much is said. No one would applaud the wisdom and skill of a man who wasted a pipe of wine every time he desired to fill a glass.” *

Arguments of this kind against the evidence of design in nature are not novel, and they have hitherto been rejected by the majority of thinking men. They are too metaphysical for us to enter upon ; we can only note that though man cannot conceive creation, some idea of it has occurred to him, either naturally or from Revelation. Again, in the case of * ‘ Fortnightly Review,’ July, 1867, p. 100.

Chap. I. ARGUMENTS AGAINST DESIGN.

beauty, it is clear that some things produce an impression on man by means of something which he calls beauty, while other objects appear to him to be ugly. Somehow or other we do distinguish between the two cases.

These arguments, however, are supposed to have received great support from Mr. Darwin’s theory, as that theory seems to point out a mode in which the world may have been formed without the direct action of an intelligent will. The theories of evolution are indeed the great novelty in Natural Theology, and their advocates think them fatal to all notion of creation. We trust the reader will find that the consideration of them only leads us to new evidence of adaptation, and of the existence of some influence other than the automatic action of matter.

And now, before we proceed any further in our inquiries, we must ask the supporters of these theories of evolution to explain how it happens that in the world in which we live there should be, as they assert, such a predominance of misery, such prodigality of waste, when that world has been formed,

16 EVOLUTION; DEFECTIVE ADAPTATION. Chap. I.

according to their views, by the survival of the fittest, by a strict regard to the greatest good of each individual only. If we could conceive creation at all, we might imagine that what appeared waste might be a provision for some other creature, though not of use, or even detrimental, to the individual with respect to which it occurred. For each and for all may be the principle in creation, but this principle can have no place in a system founded upon the intensely selfish survival of the fittest.