SOME EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EVOLUTIONISTS. 33* 



of the nineteenth century, and of certain of the most significant and 

 characteristic developments of nineteenth century philosophy — espe- 

 cially of philosophical pessimism. The emphasis which Herder lays 

 upon this class of facts is therefore interesting and noteworthy: 

 "Where and when each being could arise, there it arose; energies 

 (Krcifte) pressed in through every gate of entrance and formed them- 

 selves to life" (Bk. X., ch. 2). "Nature employs infinitely many 

 germs; . . . she must needs therefore reckon upon some loss, since all 

 things crowd one another (alles zusammengedrangt ist), and nothing 

 finds room completely to develop itself " (Bk. II., ch. 2). " The whole 

 creation is at war, and the most conflicting powers lie close to one 

 another. . . . Each being strives with each, since each itself is hard- 

 pressed for life ; it must save its own skin, and guard its own existence. 

 Why does nature act thus? Why does she thus crowd her creatures 

 one upon another? Because she aimed to produce the greatest number 

 and the greatest variety of living things in the least possible space; so 

 that one subdues another, and only through the equilibrium of opposing 

 powers is peace brought about in the creation. Every species cares for 

 itself as if it were the only one in existence; hut by its side stands 

 another which keeps it within bounds; and it was only in this adjust- 

 ment of warring species that creative nature found the means of pre- 

 serving the whole" (Bk. II., ch. 3). In all this Nature (for Herder 

 almost invariably personifies) takes no account of the individual, but 

 rather sacrifices him ruthlessly to her 'one great end, which is — not 

 the little end of the sentient creature alone, but — the propagation and 

 continuance of the species. ' And in this connection Herder anticipates 

 Schopenhauer in picturing the pleasures of the love of the sexes, and 

 the romantic illusions connected with that love in man, as merely a 

 subtle trick whereby nature cajoles the individual to sacrifice himself 

 to her larger aim. Schopenhauer's famous chapter on the 'Meta- 

 physics of the Love of the Sexes' is little more than an amplification 

 of a passage in the second book of the 'Ideen.' Always, Herder per- 

 ceives, when the reproduction and increase of life is at stake, nature 

 turns Machiavelian, and plays upon the egoism of the individual for 

 her own very different ends. "It is," he writes, "particularly 

 humiliating to man that in the sweet impulses which he terms love, and 

 to which he attributes so much spontaneity, he obeys the laws of nature 

 almost as blindly as a plant. . . . Two creatures sigh for each other, 

 and know not for what they sigh; they languish to become one, which 

 dividing nature has denied ; they swim on a sea of deception. Sweetly 

 deceived creatures, enjoy your time; yet know that ye accomplish not 

 your own little dreams, but, pleasantly compelled, the great aim of 

 nature. ... As soon as she has secured the species, she suffers the 

 individual gradually to decay. Hardly is the season of love over 



