328 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



'Metakritik' would assuredly have been surprised to hear Kant called 

 his 'master'; and it is sufficiently clear, from Herder's own language, 

 that the influence which led him to employ such expressions as have 

 caused some to consider him an evolutionist, was that of Buffon and 

 other naturalists of the century, not that of Kant. During Herder's 

 student days (1762-4) in Koenigsberg, indeed, it is improbable that 

 Kant's influence could have encouraged a belief in organic, as distin- 

 guished from cosmic, evolution. On the other hand, it is not true that 

 Herder was 'less cautious' than Kant in his treatment of the doctrine 

 of transformation; for, by the time of the 'Kritik of Judgment' 

 (1790), Kant had grasped the theory of the descent of species in all its 

 implications and was ready to recognize it as at least a promising 

 hypothesis ; while Herder, in the ' Ideen, ' argues at length against what 

 he calls 'the improved and totally self -contradictory paradox' that ani- 

 mal species can depart from their divinely-defined character and that 

 man is directly related to the ape. 



Yet Herder's book is certainly full of apergus that come near to the 

 evolution theory; and it unquestionably helped to produce a state of 

 mind favorable to the acceptance of the theory. Some passages in the 

 'Ideen,' read by themselves, might easily seem to justify the classifi- 

 cation of Herder with the thorough-going evolutionists. For his posi- 

 tion is peculiar and somewhat equivocal. Where he stands in the 

 matter may perhaps best be shown by setting down in catalogue fashion 

 the several contentions that he advanced in regard to the history of 

 the animal kingdom and the relation of the lower species to man. 



1. Herder clearly recognized that there had been a sequence of 

 temporally successive forms appearing upon the globe, beginning with 

 simpler forms and proceeding to those most highly organized; 'from 

 stones to crystals, from crystals to metals, from these to plants, from 

 plants to animals and from animals to man, we see the form of organ- 

 ization ascend; and with it the powers and propensities of the creature 

 become more various, until finally they all, so far as possible, unite in 

 the form of man (Bk. V., eh. 1). Each new type as it appears is 

 dependent for its survival upon the prior existence of simpler types — 

 dependent usually, indeed, in a very plain sense, since the newcomer 

 commonly has the earlier-born creatures for its necessary food. " It 

 is manifestly contrary to Nature that she should bring all creatures 

 into existence at the same time. The structure of the earth and the 

 inner constitution of the creatures themselves make this impossible. 

 Elephants and worms, lions and infusoria, do not appear in equal num- 

 bers, nor could they be created, in consistency with their natures, at 

 one time or in equal proportions. Millions of shellfish must needs 

 have perished before our bare rock of earth could be made a fruitful 

 soil for a finer type of life ; a world of plants is destroyed each year in 



