220 



♦ KNO^A^LEDGE 



[August 1, 1887. 



CHAPTER VII.— SOCIAL EVOLUTION. 



Evolution of Mind. — If the theory of Evolution be not a 

 universal, the germs of decay are in it. And liere we pass 

 from what is intere.sting to what is of serious import for us, 

 because if the phenomena of mind are not capable of the 

 like mechanical explanation as the phenomena of stars and 

 planets and of vegetable and animal life, Evolution remains 

 only a specidation to fiiscinate the curious. It can, in that 

 case, furnish no rule of life or motive to conduct, and 

 man, " the roof and crown of things," would be the sole 

 witness against their unity and totality. If there be in him 

 any faculty which is no part of the contents of the univerte, 

 if there be anything done by him which lies outside the 

 range of causation, then the doctrine of the Conservation of 

 Energy falls to pieces, for man has the power to add to that 

 which the physicist demonstrates can neither be increased 

 nor lessened. 



The ground covered in former papers need not be 

 retrodden to show that man is one in ultimate beginnings, 

 and in the stuff of which he is made, with the meanest 

 flower that blows, and that in mode of development from 

 the egg to the adult state there is exact likeness between 

 him and other mammals. But some repetition of the 

 process of mental development from the lowest life-forms to 

 the highest is needful. 



"Structure for structure," remarks Professor Huxley, "down to 

 the minutest microscopical details, the eye, the ear, the olfactory 

 organs, the nerves, the spinal cord, the brain of an ape, or of a dog, 

 correspond with the same organs in the human subject. Cut a 

 nerve, and the evidence of paralysis, or of insensibilit}', is the same 

 in the two cases ; apply pressure to the brain, or administer a 

 narcotic, and the signs of intelligence disappear in the one as in the 

 other. Whatever reason we have for believing that the changes 

 which take place in the normal cerebral substance of man give rise 

 to states of consciousness, the same reason exists for the belief that 

 the modes of motion of the cerebral substance of an ape, or of a 

 dog, produce like effects." * 



But let us begin at the bottom of the life-scale. The 

 lowest things, being organless, or alike all over, respond 

 to touch, " the mother-tongue of all the senses," in every 

 pai't, simply changing their shape from moment to moment. 

 A step higher we find forms in which unlikenesses in 

 parts begin to show themselves — e.g., in the formation of 

 a layer at the surface — and here the responses to the stimuli, 

 as they are called, become localised, because the movements 

 of the stimuli take place, like all modes of motion, along 

 the lines of least resistance. These movements give ri.se to 

 changes in the structure of the organism, driving the molecules 

 out of t heir places, and, following in incredibly rapid succession, 

 finally lay down permanent nerve-tracks, built up of the more 

 sensitive parts of the skin. All sense-organs, whether the 

 whiskers of a cat or the eye of a man, all the wondrous net- 

 work of nerves and the brain itself, have thus originated. 

 Practice makes perfect ; and, as the result of their 

 incessant repetitioti, the lowest and simplest nerve-actions, 

 known as reflex, take place automatically in plants and 

 animals. Such are the contractions of an amceba or of 

 the leaves of a mimosa ; breathing, the action of the 

 heart, winking of the eyes — in short, all actions that are 

 performed unconsciously, and which are repeated in virtue 

 of the tendency to do them being innate in the structure 

 which each organism inherits from its ancestors. Besides 

 these natural reflex actions, there is a group of artificial 

 reflex actions which our higher intelligence enables us to 

 acquire, as the arts of reading, playing instruments, ifec. 



As everyone knows, it takes a soldier a long time to learn his 

 drill— for instance, to put hi mself into the attitude of " attention " at 

 the instant the word of command Is heard ; but, after a time, the 

 sound of the word gives rise to the act, whether the soldier be 



* Hume, p. 105. 



thinking of it or not. There is a story, which is credible enough, 

 though it may not be true, of a practical joker, who, seeing a dis- 

 charged veteran carrying liome his dinner, suddenly called out 

 " Al tention ! " whereupon the man instantlj' brought his hands 

 down, and lost his mufon and potatoes in the gutter. The drill 

 had been thorough, and its effects had become embodied in the 

 man's nervous structure. The possibility of all education is based 

 upon the existence of this power, which the nervous system 

 possesses, of organising conscious actions into more or less 

 unconscious, or reflex, operations.* 



Instinct is a higher form of reflex action. The bird makes 

 its nest or migrates from one zone to another by an unvary- 

 ing route; the bee builds its six-sided cell; the chick breaks 

 its way through the shell, balances itself, and picks up 

 grains of corn ; the new-born babe sucks its mother's breast, 

 all in virtue of like acts on the part of their ancestors, and 

 which, arising in the needs of the creature and gradually 

 becoming instinctive, have not varied during long ages, the 

 tendency to repeat them being transmitted within the germ 

 from which bee and bird and man have severally sprung. 

 But, as Gilbert White remarked more than a century ago, 

 " the maxim that defines instinct to be that secret induence 

 by which every species is compelled naturally to pursue at 

 all times the same way or track without any teaching or 

 example, must be taken in a qualified sense, for there are 

 instances in which instinct does vary and conform to the 

 circumstances of place and convenience." f Herein that 

 delightful writer, without suspecting what he was conceding 

 to the brute, indicates where instinct passes into Beason. 

 For the main difference between the two is that, while the 

 one is done because the .animal cannot help doing it, the 

 other is the consciotis adjustment of means to ends, of selec- 

 tion as the result of reflection. In the one there is no pause, 

 in the other there is a measurable interval, hence the stimuli 

 to action are more complex and less rapid, giving time for 

 that ])erception of likenesses and unlikenesses in things 

 which is essential to conscious action. Further than this 

 we need not now follow those processes of chemical changes 

 in the molecules of the brain which, in ways we know not, 

 result in consciousness. It suffices to say that whereas the 

 lower animals, for the most part, start fully equipped for 

 their functions, and rarely pass beyond them, a few higher 

 approach man, tomjo intervallo, in having to pass through a 

 period of helplessness, because the brain and connecting 

 mental apparatus are not complete at birth. 



In this lies the explanation of that capacity for teach- 

 ableness, for profit from experience, which, although no 

 special endowment of man, is his in immeasurable degree 

 compared with the animals nearest to him in development. 

 And since the knowledge that is gained and the habits that 

 are acquired in early life abide with us, and determine cha- 

 racter, therein lies the importance to ourselves and to others 

 of learning what is true and of cultivating what is good. 



Enough has been said to show that, vast as are the 

 differences between the highest and lowest mental actions, 

 there is no lireak in the series which, starting with the 

 reflex movements of an amoeba or of a carnivorous plant, 

 advances along the line of animal instinct and intelligence, 

 and ends with the complex movements of the brain of 

 civilised man, with its infinite modes of response to infinite 

 stimuli. 



Evolution of Society. — Like every other species, man 

 tends to vary, and also to multiply at a rate beyond the 

 means of subsistence. Mjriads of human beings perish 

 every year in a few hours or days after birth; vast numbers 

 die in early childhood ; wars, j)estilences, famines, and 

 catastrophes decimate at intervals the populations of 

 empires. Natural selection weeds out the least fit, and 



* Huxley's " Elementary Physiology," p. 306. 

 t " Natural History of Selborne," Letter Ivi. to Mr. Barrington. 



