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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



does not show an instance of a nation rising 

 by its own efforts from barbarism to civili- 

 zation. . . . The incontestable fact is, that 

 human nature reveals no inherent impulse 

 to improve or perfect itself. History gives 

 unnumbered cases of a downward tendency, 

 but not a single instance of a self-evolved 

 progress. The lamp which lights one nation 

 in its advancement has been always lighted 

 by a lamp behind it. Civilization is never 

 indigenous ; it is an exotic plant wherever 

 found. This is the simple truth of history, 

 which makes all such discussions as Mr. Dar- 

 win's respecting the descent of man as false 

 to fact as they are abhorrent to philosophy." 



President Seelye's inference that be- 

 cause nations decay there is no evohi- 

 tion of humanity, does not appear to be 

 conclusive. The considerations alleged 

 as making the doctrine of Darwin's dis- 

 cussions "false to fact" seem to us to 

 be in harmony with it, and the natural 

 consequence of it. President Seelye 

 appeals to the historic phenomena of 

 deterioration, disintegration, and decay 

 among nations and civilizations as dis- 

 proving the principle of development ; 

 but how is decay made possible except 

 by previous growth, and how can a 

 community degenerate unless it has first 

 been organized and unfolded ? The con- 

 clusion is certainly logical that before 

 civilizations can dissolve they must first 

 be evolved, so that to aflnrm a " law of 

 deterioration " is necessarily to imply 

 a previous "law of evolution.'' In the 

 normal course of Nature the effete and 

 outworn must pass away. The spent 

 molecules of our tissues have to be 

 eliminated, that more vitalized particles 

 may replace them. Individuals when 

 they get old and useless die out of the 

 community, that their younger and more 

 vigorous successors may carry on the 

 work. On the larger scale, but in the 

 same way, nations die out as civilization 

 progresses; while civilizations them- 

 selves are spent in the larger advance- 

 ment of humanity. "We may brood with 

 morbid sentiment over excretion, de- 

 cay, and death, until there seems to be 

 nothing else ; yet these are normal 



things, and are simply the correlates and 

 the consequences of growth and life. 

 President Seelye declares that in the 

 past career of humanity " degeneration 

 and decay vastly preponderate ; " ho 

 should have explained how that can be 

 how there could be a fall without a 

 previous rise to make it possible. If 

 he means that much the greater num- 

 ber of nations and civilizations come 

 apparently to naught, we have simply 

 to say that this is the law in the realm 

 of life : the eggs that are wasted and the 

 seeds that are scattered and lost vastly 

 preponderate over those that mature. 

 Nature is profuse in the waste of life, 

 and sacrifices multitudes where but 

 few are perfected. But is not this 

 ruthless and wide-spread destruction 

 only a part of Nature's policy for the 

 attainment of grand results ? The evo- 

 lutionists afiirm continuity of influence 

 in the sphere of life, and that some of 

 the nations and civilizations which de- 

 chne and die pass on the impulses which 

 they have gained to reappear in suc- 

 ceeding and higher stages of national 

 and racial development. President Seel- 

 ye recognizes this principle of continu- 

 ity in saying, " The lamp which lights 

 one nation in its advancement has been 

 always lighted by a lamp behind it." 

 National advancement is here conceded, 

 and also a series of advancements, each 

 depending upon a preceding one. But 

 is there nothing gained by accumulated 

 experience ? Is there no general prog- 

 ress resulting from the advancement of 

 nations in succession and under different 

 circumstances? If the dissolution of 

 states and the decay of civilizations do 

 not break the continuity of those agen- 

 cies by which man is civilized, how can 

 they hinder that gradual improvement 

 of the process and heightening of the 

 effects which evolution implies as the 

 consequence of prolonged, varied, and 

 accumulated national experiences ? 



If we try President Seelye's logic in 

 a more special case, its quality will, 

 perhaps, be more apparent. " Behold," 



