524 



NATURE 



[Sept. 27, 1883 



times of persecuti m and in the midst uf a contemptuous soc ety, 

 have, with an ardour proportioned to the prevailing neglect, 

 pursued some special line of scientific inquiry, it is nevertheless 

 ■true that in it-elf, a >art from special social conditions, Science 

 mu>t develop in a c immunity which honours and desires it before 

 all things, qualities an 1 characteristics which are the highest, the 

 most hu nan of hunan attributes. These are, firstly, the fearless 

 love and unflinching acceptance of truth ; hopeful patience ; that 

 true humility which is content not 1 1 know what cannot be 

 known, yet labours and waits ; love of Nature, who is not less, 

 but more, worshipped by those who know her best ; love of the 

 human brothcrhoo I f ir « horn and with w horn the growth of 

 Science is de-ired and effected. 



No one can trace the limits of Science, nor the possibilities of 

 happiness b >th of mind and b dy which ic may bring in the 

 fu ure to mankind. V> mndless though the prospect is yet the 

 rninue.t contribution to the onward grow ih has its absolute and 

 una sailable value ; on made it can never be 1 St ; its effect is 

 for ever in the history of man 



Arts perish, and the noblest works which artists give to the 

 world. Art (though the source of great and noble delights) can- 

 not creite nor perpetuate; it embodies only that which already 

 exis s inhuman experience, whil t the results of its highest flights 

 are do >med to decay and sterility. A va n regret, a constant effort 

 to emulate or to imitate the pas', is the lilting and laudable 

 characteristic of Art at the preseiv day. There is, indeed, no 

 truth in the popul ir partition of human affairs between Science and 

 Art as between two antagonistic or even comparable interests ; but 

 the contra t which they present in | obits >uch as those just 

 mentioned is forcible. Science is essentially creative ; new 

 know ledge — the experience and understanding of things which 

 were previously non- .xistcnt for man's intelligence, is its constant 

 achievement. And the^e creations never perish ; the new is 

 built on and incorporates the old; there is no turning back to 

 recover what has lapsed through age; the oldest discovery is 

 ■even fresher than the new, yielding in ever increasing number 

 new results, in which it is itself reproduced and perpetuated, as 

 the parent in the cbild. 



Tnis, then, is tae faith which has taken shape in proportion 

 as the innate desire of man for mote knowledge has asserted 

 itself — namely, that there is no greater good than the increase 

 of Sc ence ; that through it all other good will follow. Good 

 as Science is in itself, the desire and search for it is even better, 

 raising men above vile things and worthless competitions to a 

 fuller life and keener enjoyments. Through it we believe that 

 man will be saved from misery antl degradation, not merely ac- 

 quiring new material powers, but learning to use and to guide 

 his life with understanding. Through Science he will be freed 

 from the fetters of superstition ; through faith in Science he 

 will acquire a new and enduring delight in the exercise of 

 his capacities ; he will gain a zest and interest in life such as 

 the present phase of culture fails to supply. 



In opposition to the view that the pursuit of Science can ob- 

 tain a strong hold upon human life, it may be argued, that on 

 no reasonable ground can it appear a nece-sary or advantageous 

 thing to the individual man to concern himself with the growth 

 and progress of that which is merely likely to benefit the dis- 

 tant posterity of the human race. Our reply is : Let those who 

 contend for the reasonableness of human motives develop, if 

 they can, any theory of human conduct in which reasonable 

 self-interest shall be man's guide. We do not contend for any 

 such theory. By reasoning we may explain and trace the de- 

 velopment of human nature, but we cannot change it by any 

 such process. It is demonstrably unreasonable for the individual 

 man, guided by self-interest, to share the dangers and privations 

 of his brother-man, and yet, in common with many lower 

 animals, he has an inherited quality which makes it a pleasure 

 to him to do so ; it is unreasonable for the mother to protect her 

 offspring, and yet it is the natural an 1 inherited quality of 

 mothers to derive pleasure from doing so ; it is unreasonable 

 for the half-starved poor to aid their wholly starving brethren, 

 and yet such compassion is natural and pleasurable to those who 

 show it, and is the constant rule of life. Unreasonable though 

 these things are from the point of view of individual self- 

 interest, yet they are done because to do them is pleasurable, to 

 leave them undone a pain. The race has, as it were, in these 

 respects befooled the individual, and in the course of evolution 

 has plan'ed in him, in its own interests, an irrational capacity 

 for taking pleasure in doing that which no reasoning in regard 

 to self-interest could justify. As with these lower and more 

 widely distributed in-tincts, shared by man with some lower 



social animals, so is it with this higher and more peculiar 

 instinct — the tendency to pursue new Isnowledge. Whether rea- 

 sonable or not, it has by the laws of heredity and selection 

 become part of us and exists : its operation is beneficial to the 

 race: its gratification is a source of keen pleasure to the 

 individual — an end in itself. We may safely count upon it as 

 a factor in human nature ; it is in our power to cultivate and 

 develop it, or, on the other hand, to starve and distort it for a 

 while, though to do so is to waste time in opposing the 

 irresistible. 



As day by day the old-fashioned stimulus to the higher life 

 lo s es the dread control which it once exercised over the thoughts 

 of men, the pursuit of wealth and the indulgence in fruitless 

 gratifications of sense become to an increasing number the chief 

 concerns of their mental life. Such occupations fail to satisfy 

 the deeo desires of humanity ; they become wearisome and 

 meaningless, so that we hear men questioning whether life be 

 worth living. When the dreams and aspirations of the youthful 

 world have lost their old significance and their strong power to 

 raise men's lives, it will be well for that community which has 

 organised in time a following of and a reverence for an ideal 

 Good, which may serve to lift the national mind above the level 

 of sensuality and to insure a belief in the hopefulness and worth 

 of life. The faith in Science can fill this place — the progress of 

 Science is an ideal Good, sufficient to exert this great 

 influence. 



It is for this reason more than any other, as it seems to those 

 who hold this faith, that the progress and diffusion of scientific 

 research, its encouragement and reverential nurture, should be 

 a chief business of the community, whether collectively or 

 individually, at the present day. 



Department of Anthropology 



Address by William Pengelly, F.R.S., F.G.S., Vice- 

 President of the Section. 



ANTHRorOLOGY, on 01 e of its numerous sides, marches with 

 geol gy ; and hence it is, no doubt, that I, for many years a 

 labourer very nea r this somewhat ill-defined border, have been 

 invited to assist my friends and neighbours in the work which 

 lie- before them during the Association week. I have the more 

 cheerfully accepted the invitation from a vivid recollection that, 

 when on a few occasions I have come uninvited into this Depart- 

 ment, my reception has been so very cordial as to lead me to ask 

 myself whether the reports which for many years (1864 to 1880) 

 I laid annually before my geological brethren did not derive 

 their chief intere>t from their anthropological bearings and 

 teachings. 



In 1858— a quarter of a century ago — I had the pleasure of 

 reading to the Geological Section of the Association the first 

 public communication on the exploration, then in progress, of 

 Brixham Cavern (more correctl)', Brixham Windmill Hill Cavern) ; 

 and as any interest connected with that paper lay entirely in the 

 evidence it contained of the inosculation and contemporaneity of 

 human industrial relics, of a rude character, with remains of 

 certain extinct mammals, I purpose on this occasion to lay 

 before the Department a few thoughts, retrospective and pro- 

 spective, which may be said to radiate from that exploration, 

 confining m self mainly to South Devon, 



Probably nothing will better show the apparent apathy and 

 scepticism with which, up to 1858, all geological evidence of the 

 antiquity of man was received by British geologists generally, 

 than the following statement of fact's: — 



About the beginning of the second quarter of the present 

 century the late Rev. J. MacEnery made Kent's Cavern, or 

 Kent's Hole, near Torquay, famous by his researches and dis- 

 coveries there. He not only found flint implements beneath a 

 thick continuous sheet of stalagmite, but, after a most careful 

 and painstaking investigation in the presence of witnesses, 

 arrived at the conclusion that the flints " were deposited in their 

 deep position before the creation of the stalagmite" (Trans. 

 Devon. Assoc, iii. 330) ; and when it was suggested by the Rev. 

 1 Ir. Buckland, to whom he at once and without reservation com- 

 municated all his discoveries, that "the ancient Britons had 

 scooped out ovens in the stalagmite, and that through them the 

 knives got admission to the 'diluvium,'" he replied, "I am 

 bold to say that in no instance have I discovered evidence of 

 breaches or ovens in the floor, but one continuous plate of 

 stalagmite diffused uniformly over the loam" (Ibid. p. 334). 



