as "

He

confound the two series; the physiolo- | On the other hand, Professor Bain, the gists continually applying psychological psychologist of the school, largely adopts, terms to bodily elements and functions, if he did not introduce, the equally vicious and the psychologists employing physi- plan of describing mental states and proological terms to describe mental states cesses in physiological language. and operations. Mr. Darwin himself is continually drags in physical details and a great offender in this respect. The phrases, which simply disfigure the expovery title of his ablest and best known sition without throwing any light on the work illustrates this confusion. "The mental facts to be explained. Professor Origin of Species by means of Natural Huxley attempts, it is true, to justify this Selection" might be fairly paraphrased inaccurate and misleading use of the lanThe Origin of Species by means of guage. Blind Foresight, Haphazard Deliberation, and Necessary Choice." The phrase necessary choice" is the exact equivalent of "natural selection," and strictly interpreted it is simply a contradiction in terms. The very object of Mr. Darwin's theory is to exclude the conception of intelligence, forecast, and design from the progress of science, the materialistic terminoloperations of nature, yet the most im-ogy is in every way to be preferred. For it connects thought with the other phænomena of the universe, and suggests inquiry into the nature of those physical conditions, or concomitants of thought, which are more or less accessible to us; . . . whereas the alternative, or spiritualistic, terminology is utterly barren, and leads to nothing but obscurity and confusion of ideas."

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portant term used in describing the theory has no distinctive meaning apart from mind. Almost any section of Mr. Darwin's writings would furnish abundant instances of a like kind.

"In itself," he says, "it is of little moment whether we express the phænomena of matter in terms of spirit, or the phænomena of spirit in terms of matter; matter may be regarded as a form of thought, thought may be regarded as a property of matter; each statement has a But with a view to the certain relative truth.

If we understand this passage, Professor Huxley appears to say that such terms as thought and feeling, volition and desire, are barren, if not confused and unintelligible, and ought therefore to be aban

But this vice of confusion appears in still more flagrant form in the writings of Dr. Maudesley. Not content with an occasional raid into the neighbouring province, Dr. Maudesley attempts to carry over the great body of psychological terms into physiology. He thus invests his purely physical expositions with doned. But that to speak of glandular a verbal haze or glamour of emotional, imaginative, and volitional language. The title of his chief work, "The Physiology of the Mind," indicates the kind of verbal confusion that infects its expositions. To harmonize with this feature of the work the more appropriate title would have been the "Psychology of the Body." The special sensations of the cerebral neurine are called by Dr. Maudesley emotions; the equilibrium of nervous power is latent thought, "mind statical," while the disturbance of this equilibrium is active thought, "mind dynamical." Then, again, the automatic response of animal tissue to an external stimulus is, if active, perception; if latent, memory; and if irregular, we presume, imagination. If this sort of wholesale confounding of bodily elements and products with mental ones goes much further, we shall soon have young enterprising physiologists extending the dictum of Cabanis, and asserting that all the secretions of the body are thoughts, and all its excretions language, and discriminating the various excretions as different dialects of a common tongue.

secretions, cerebral currents, ganglionic shocks, and.molecular changes, instead of intelligence, emotion, and will, is perfectly comprehensible, and contributes to the advancement of knowledge. In other words, that in dealing with mental phenomena it is more scientific to speak of their physical conditions or correlatives, of which we are never conscious, and which are indeed unknown, than to speak of the phenomena themselves, which appear in the full light of internal perception, and constitute our most habitual and vivid experiences. Such an attempted defence is surely its own best refutation. If further refutation were needed, it is found in Professor Tyndall's clear discrimination of the two provinces of inquiry, and his emphatic declaration that the fullest knowledge of the one does not throw any light upon the other. In his paper on "Scientific Materialism," he points out that the passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding fact of consciousness is unthinkable. "Granted that a definite thought and a definite molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously, we do not possess the intel

lectual organ, nor apparently any rudiment | or influence may determine. No doubt, of the organs which would enable us to as already intimated, some of the more pass, by a process of reasoning, from the susceptible minds may have been atone to the other. They appear together, tracted not only by the novelty and notobut we do not know why." "In affirming riety, but by the grandeur and power, the that the growth of the body is mechanical, secular sweep and material sublimity, of and that thought, as exercised by us, has the' hypothesis itself. But the majority its correlative in the physics of the brain, are probably influenced by more mixed I think the position of the Materialist' and superficial motives. Amongst these is stated, as far as that position is a ten- is the exhilarating sense of free dom able one. I do not think he is entitled to and independence in adopting advanced say that his molecular groupings and his views, and the piquant feeling of conmolecular motions explain everything. scious power in urging them against the In reality they explain nothing. The ut- alarmed remonstrances of acquaintances most he can affirm is the association of and friends. It is pleasant to ride as it two classes of phenomena, of whose real were on the crest of the largest advancbond of union he is in absolute ignorance." ing wave of scientific speculation, and lay This is the language of science, which the flattering unction to your soul that separates things that are distinct, and you share its pre-eminence, and are part designates different sets of facts by sig- of the power that urges it forward. Unnificant and appropriate terms. And it fortunately these new doctrines afford cuts at the root of the confusion both of ample scope for this seductive species thought and language, which is so char- of self-glorification. The most striking acteristic a feature of the school. It is points in the theory of evolution, as well due to Mr. John Stuart Mill to say that as in its application, are precisely of the he is never guilty of this inexact and mis-kind most readily apprehended by ordileading use of language. He always describes mental facts in physiological terms, and physical facts in physical terms; and this is, of course, the only scientific method. The reverse of the process, however plausibly disguised or ingeniously defended, is in reality absurd. It would be quite as rational to talk of dissecting an emotion or preserving an idea in spirit, as to talk of consciously associating molecular currents, feeling the logical connexion between two nerve shocks, or realizing by internal perception the production of phosphorus in the brain. We fear, however, that the sounder precept of Professor Tyndall, and the higher example of Mr. Mill, will be lost on the more advanced evolutionists. Mr. Milling is restricted to a desultory acquaintis, indeed, already regarded by the new school as somewhat out of date; his philosophy with them is becoming antiquated. His purer taste and more accurate style are hardly likely, therefore, to have much influence on young Darwinians revelling in all the looseness of vast but unverified generalizations, and clothing their crudities of thought in the grotesque confusion of a Babylonish dialect.

nary minds. That "we were once tadpoles, you know;" that men are descended from monkeys, and that "moths and butterflies flirt with each other as we do" are propositions requiring no great strength of intellect to grasp or to expound in a lively conversational way. This kind of colloquial acquaintance with these advanced theories is not unfrequently mistaken for a knowledge of natural science; and in many circles, especially in certain sections of London society, fluent conversational evolutionists are to be found whose literary culture hardly goes deeper than a slight knowledge of Mr. Swinburne's poetry, and whose scientific and philosophical train

ance with some of Mr. Darwin's more popular works. But whatever may have been the special influences in the case of individual converts, the majority agree in being evolutionists through feeling and fancy rather than through knowledge and insight. They thus exemplify the moral and emotional phenomena connected with temporary accesses of social and religious excitement. Their enthusiasm is for the most part unembarrassed by definite knowledge, and their zeal, like that of recent converts in general, has a tendency to outrun discretion.

The practical influence of the new doctrince is seen in the rise and rapid growth of a psuedo-scientific sect, the sect of the Darwinian evolutionists. This sect is largely recruited from the crowd of One note of similarity between the facile minds ever ready to follow the new- Darwinian evolutionists and the more acest fashion in art or science, in social or tive religious sects, is to be found in the religious life, as accidents of association | common element of strong but unen

It

in

lightened belief on which they both so erable condition. This zeal often exlargely depend. The evidence in favour tends to an affectionate solicitude as to of the central Darwinian doctrine is noto- the mental state of the undecided. riously deficient, but this is no hindrance may then find expression in the to its enthusiastic acceptance. Ardent quiries, "Are you yet a Darwinian ?” neophytes easily personify the principle Has the great doctrine of evolution been of evolution, and clothe it in imagination revealed to you?" "Has the day-spring with all the powers necessary for the pro- of chaos, necessity, and chance dawned duction of its reputed effects. They upon you, or are you still groping in the trust its working where they cannot outer darkness of creation, intelligence, trace it, and are content to walk by faith, and design?" These anxious inquirers not by sight. On all doubtful points combine with their missionary zeal for the their subjective conviction is so strong unconverted a sectarian keenness of as to be independent of objective verifi- scent for heresy. Any reference to soul cation or outward proof of any kind. or mind, to rational order, foresight, or The external evidence that men are de-adaptation, they regard with instinctive scended from monkeys, for example, suspicion; while all such conceptions as is almost wholly wanting; but happily, in moral order, ordained purpose, formal or the case of docile converts, it is also final causes in nature, are promptly reneedless. Difficulties equally serious are pudiated as mere remnants of ancient removed by the unquestioning faith and outworn superstitions. The missionwhich is the evidence of things not seen, ary efforts of the sect are, in fact, a kind the substance or assurance of all that is of ludicrous travesty of the acts and artieagerly desired. The cavils of sceptics fices of sectarian aggressiveness and selfare of no avail with the true evolutionist assertion. This tendency to intolerance believer, because he has an unfaltering appears also in the writings of the school, trust in his own sacred books and in- especially in the less distinguished. The spired writers. At their bidding he is tone of the discussion in many cases inready to adopt not only things unsup- volves the tacit assumption that the evoluported by reason, things above and be- tionists are the only wise men, and wisyond reason, but things directly opposed dom itself will die with them. This feato all reason, all probability, and all ex- ture comes strongly out in the journals of perience. The new school, indeed, vir- the school in the free use of such terms as tually adopts as its own the more ex- exploded" and "extinct" applied to all treme and irrational maxims belonging to opposing theories and rival views. Nor the darkest period of religious belief. are the writings of the leaders altogether Thus Dr. Maudesley, referring to the free from this taint of intolerance. Even physical miracles which disciples are Mr. Darwin's courtesy and candour parcalled upon to accept, says expressly take in a measure of the same spirit. "In such matters it would be more wise the present volume his casual references to adopt Tertullian's maxim, 'Credo quia to other principles of interpretation than impossibile est,' than that which is so his own, though strictly polite, indicate much favoured by the conceit of human clearly enough that in the writer's opinion ignorance that a thing is impossible they are irrational and absurd. This because it appears to be inconceivable." method of treating opponents, though Another note of sectarianism in the vastly superior to that of Papal denuncievolutionists is their tendency to intoler- ation, rests on the same assumption of ance. This tendency is manifested, per- infallibility, the same summary rejection haps, in its extremest form amongst the of all rival views, as the more violent rank and file of the sect. It displays it- anathemas of the Sovereign Pontiff. The self, however, in various shapes, some of same spirit is traceable in the writings of which are amusing enough. Sometimes Professor Huxley, perhaps the acutest it appears in the eager denunciation of thinker and most variously accomplished opposing views, the impatience of all ad- man belonging to the school. It is imverse criticism, and the bringing against possible, however, to read his replies to opponents hasty charges of blindness and opponents without feeling that they obstinacy, ignorance and prejudice, ser- breathe a spirit of latent intolerance, and vility, corruption, or fear. At other times are tinged with sectarian bitterness. the latent spirit of intolerance assumes certain passages of his writings he rises the garb of missionary zeal, appearing in to a pitch of prophetic denunciation, and the tacit assumption that all who are not tells his opponents that they are doomed Darwinians are in a benighted and mis-to speedy extinction by the nature of

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In

In

pursuits. The greatest poets

Homer,

things, and will soon be swept from the universe. This extreme tone is probably Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare - are due in part to the fact that Professor passed by as mere "fiddlers," while metHuxley has accepted the principle of aphysicians and theologians are deevolution more absolutely than any other nounced as word-jugglers dealing in idle man of science except Mr. Darwin him- abstractions and fictitious entities. Even self, and that consequently he represents history and travels have in their view a what may be called its religious spirit in very secondary and indirect value, as the most concentrated form, and partly helping to throw occasional light on the also to the fact that his nature is essen- physical condition of savage tribes or the tially Puritanic, if not Calvinistic. He material fragments of ancient culture. has the moral earnestness, the volitional As a rule, therefore, the evolutionists energy, the absolute confidence in his have little or no knowledge of literature, own convictions, the desire and deter- philosophy, or history. The faithful mination to impress them upon all man- Darwinian, like the faithful Mussulman, kind, which are the essential marks of judges the accumulated stores of human Puritan character. His whole temper knowledge from the point of view of his and spirit is essentially dogmatic of the particular faith, and would deal with them Presbyterian or Independent type, and as the Calif Omir did with the Alexanhe might fairly be described as a Round- drian library. If other works contain head who had lost his faith. He himself only what is found in Mr. Darwin, they are shows the truest instinct of this in calling superfluous and need not be kept; if they his republished essays "Lay Sermons." contain anything different, anything opThey abound, in fact, with the hortatory posed to Mr. Darwin, they are injurious, passages, the solemn personal experien- and ought to be destroyed. The old idea ces, the heart-searchings and earnest appeals that are found in Puritan literature. The hypothesis of evolution thus met a real and vital want in his nature, and he espoused it with a crusading zeal and insistence surprising enough to less ardent minds. In perfect harmony with this feature of his character, Professor Hux-winian conditions. Amidst the various ley has been known to express a strong desire for a scientific hell, to which the finally impenitent, those who persist in rejecting the new physical gospel, might be condemned. In a lower degree, and in less noble forms, the same spirit of intolerance is, however, manifested by all the more energetic members of the new school.

of catholic training, of a varied and vigorous culture, fitted to develop and strengthen all the powers of the mind, is in this way so completely lost that the evolutionist's conception of education appears hardly to go beyond the teaching of physiology and natural history under Dar

and conflicting notions of liberal education that are now distracting public attention, there could hardly perhaps be found a lower depth than this.

The founder himself shares to a large extent in this central characteristic of the school; and here we are brought face to face with a vital defect in the volume before us a defect that goes far to undermine its leading principles, and vitiate some of its most prominent conclusions. It has long been a reproach against Mr. Darwin that while he extends the most ample and flattering recognition to those of his own way of thinking, his associates and disciples, he rarely refers to even the highest authorities who happen to differ from him, and then only in the most indirect and sparing manner. So long as Mr. Darwin confined himself to his own subject, this procedure, though a sign of par

A final note of sectarianism in the evolutionists is what may be called their illiterateness, or at least their comparative indifference to every culture or cultus except their own. This feature is closely connected with the last-the spirit of latent intolerance — and may perhaps be regarded as one of its special manifestations. Just as religious sectaries think merely their own thoughts, read none but their own books, and are exclusively interested in the activities of their own little world, so genuine evolutionists ap-tiality, was of comparatively little consepear to have no interest in any subjects except natural history and anthropology. They repudiate all inquiries that have no direct or perceptible bearing_on these central objects of pursuit. From this point of view they stigmatize literature and philosophy as vain, if not frivolous,

quence, his own knowledge being so complete as to make him virtually independent of others. But in "The Descent of Man," and in the present work, the author is immediately concerned not only with bodily structure and functions, but with mental powers and products. He

is dealing so directly with psychological | ent authority on the subject, and boldly elements and principles that the force of deny the conclusions of the most eminent his reasoning and the value of his conclu- physiologists of the time. sions must depend altogether on his mas- It is true that in terms Mr. Darwin is tery of the facts and laws of mind. This modest enough with regard to his pretendifficult branch of investigation has been sions. He virtually apologizes for his systematically cultivated by a series of limited knowledge of mental science; thinkers whose names are as illustrious but the ground of the apology, if worth as any connected with the advancement anything, ought to have been a disqualiof science. As the result of their labours, fication for undertaking such a serious a vast body of elementary facts and illu- task as the evolution of reason and conminating principles have been gradually science from animal elements. Notwithaccumulated, and moulded into scientific standing the modesty of his tone, nothing shape, the different steps of the process can be more presumptuous in spirit and making important stages in the history substance-more arrogant, indeed, in its of philosophy. But Mr. Darwin shows claims-than Mr. Darwin's argument. no sign of being acquainted with any of It necessarily presupposes a thorough the great thinkers whose researches and knowledge of all psychological activities discoveries constitute eras in the progress and products not only in themselves but of mental science. The only preparation in their mutual relations and complex dehe seems to have thought necessary be-velopment, since the exposition underfore assuming the responsible position of takes to enumerate, explain, and account an independent authority on the subject for them all. Mr. Darwin expressly is of the most elementary and superficial claims to trace the origin, growth, and kind. So far as the evidence goes, Mr. progress of the elements of mind from Darwin's philosophical knowledge is ex- the earliest and most obscure motions of clusively derived from Mr. Herbert Spen- sense up to the highest manifestations of cer and Professor Bain. He appears to intelligence, freedom, and responsibility. have dipped into the system of the one, His very enumeration of these elements and kept at hand for ready reference the is, however, like the furniture in the poor students' manuals produced by the other. apothecary's shop-little more than “a Now, these writers each justly eminent beggarly account of empty boxes." The in his own way-notoriously belong to higher faculties, which present the most extreme and one-sided schools. But Mr. serious obstacles to the application of Darwin never seems to have enlarged his his theory, and are indeed fatal to its knowledge of philosophy, to have extend-larger ed his reading in any other direction, so as to be able to correct and modify the partial statements of his chosen guides. He is never wise above what they have written, and seems to have only an imperfect acquaintance even with this very limited section of philosophical literature. Yet on the strength of this elementary and one-sided knowledge he boldly undertakes to discuss and settle the most difficult and complex problems of mental science. In any other department of inquiry surely such a procedure would be justly considered as in the highest degree reprehensible. No amount of eminence in special departments of knowledge entitles a man to speak with authority on a subject he has not seriously studied and knows little or nothing about. And Mr. Darwin's sudden irruption into the domain of mental philosophy is as though a metaphysician who had merely dipped into Oken's" Elements of Physiophilosophy" and Carpenter's "Manual of Human Physiology" should, in virtue of such a smattering, set up as an independ

claims, Mr. Darwin omits altogether. He does this avowedly, on the ground that hardly any two authors agree in their accounts of these powers, his minute and comprehensive historical knowledge of the subject enabling him to indulge in such sweeping assertions. The assertion is of course not true; and supposing it were true, it would not relieve Mr. Darwin from the necessity of discussing such inconvenient questions as self-consciousness, discourse of reason, and personal identity. However hardly they may press upon his particular theory, these elements of our mental life exist, and have therefore to be accounted for. And for the exponent of the theory to shrink from the crucial test is a virtual admission that it is insufficient for the purposes to which it is nominally applied. At the outset, therefore, the facts to be explained are only partially considered, the most important being omitted. And the reasoning based on these facts is weaker and more irrelevant than anything to be found in the whole compass of Mr. Darwin's writings. It stumbles