176 



SCIENCE. 



the two white strata, and were described by him by 'the 

 name of " solitary cells." I trust at no distant date to 

 review the entire question of the distribution of large 

 cortical cells with measurements and to submit them to 

 the society. 



For the present I think the existence of the large cor- 

 tical cell group which I have described, shows conclus- 

 ively that before the existence of large cells can be con- 

 sidered a demonstration of the correctness of functional 

 localization, a more extended study must be made. 



THE UNITY OF NATURE. 

 By the Duke of Argyll. 

 VII. 



ON THE MORAL CHARACTER OF MAN CONSIDERED 

 IN THE LIGHT OF THE UNITY OF NATURE. 



{Continued). 



It may be well, before proceeding farther in this branch 

 of our inquiry, to retrace for a little the path we have 

 been following, and to identify the conclusions to which 

 we have been led. 



In the first place, we have seen that the sense of obli- 

 gation considered in itself — that is to say, considered 

 apart from the particular actions to which it is attached 

 — is a simple and elementary conception of the mind, in- 

 somuch that in every attempt to analyze it, or to explain 

 its origin and growth, this absurdity can always be 

 detected, — that the analysis or explanation universally 

 assumes the previous existence of that very conception 

 for which it professes to account. 



In the second place, we have seen that, just as Reason, 

 or the logical faculty, begins its work with the direct per- 

 ception of some simple and elementary truths, of which 

 no other account can be given than that they are intuit- 

 ively perceived, or, in other words, that they are what is 

 called "sell-evident," so in like manner the Moral Sense 

 begins its work with certain elementary perceptions and 

 feelings in respect to conduct, which arise out of the very 

 nature of things, and come instinctively to all men. The 

 earliest of these feelings is the obligation of obedience to 

 that first Authority the rightfulness of which over us is 

 not a question but a fact. The next of these feelings is 

 the obligation of acting towards other men as we know 

 we should like them to act towards ourselves. The first of 

 these feelings of obligation is inseparably associated with 

 the fact that all men are born helpless, absolutely de- 

 pendent and subject to Parents. The second of these 

 feelings of obligation is similarly founded on our con- 

 scious community of nature with other men, and on the 

 consequent universal applicability to them of our own 

 estimates of good and evil. 



In the third place, we have seen that this association 

 of the higher powers of Man with rudimentary data 

 which are supplied by the facts of Nature, is in perfect 

 harmony with that condition of things which prevails 

 throughout Creation, — the condition, namely, that every 

 creature is provided from the first with just so much of 

 instinct and of impulse as is requisite to propel and guide 

 it in the kind and to the measure of development of which 

 its organism is susceptible, leading it with unfailing reg- 

 ularity to the fulfillment of the law of its own being, and 

 tc the successful discharge of the functions assigned to it 

 in the world. 



In the fourth place, we have seen that the only really 

 exceptional fact connected with Man is — not that he has 

 faculties of a much higher kind than other creatures, nor 

 that these faculties are susceptible of a corresponding 

 kind and measure of development — but that in Man alone 

 this development has a persistent tendency to take a 

 wrong direction, leading not towards, but away from, the 

 perfecting of his powers. 



In the last place, we have seen that as a matter of fact, 



and as a result of this tendency, a very large portion of 

 Mankind, embracing almost all the savage races, and 

 large numbers of men among the most civilized com- 

 munities, are a prey to habits, practices, and dispositions 

 which are monstrous and unnatural — one test of this 

 unnatural character being that nothing analogous is to 

 be found among the lower animals in those spheres of 

 impulse and of action in which they have a common 

 nature with our own ; and another test being that these 

 practices, habits, and. dispositions are always directly 

 injurious and often even fatal to the race. Forbidden 

 thus and denounced by the highest of all authorities, 

 which is the authority of Natural Law, these habits and 

 practices stand before us as unquestionable exceptions 

 to the unity of Nature, and as conspicuous violations of 

 the general harmony of Creation. 



When, however, we have come to see that such is really 

 the character of these results, we cannot be satisfied with 

 the mere recognition of their existence as a fact. We 

 seek an explanation and a cause. We seek for this, 

 moreover, in a very different sense from that in which 

 we seek for an explanation and a cause of those facts 

 which have the opposite character of being according to 

 law and in harmony with the analogies of Nature. 



With facts of this last kind, when we have found the 

 place into which they fit in the order of things, we can 

 and we do rest satisfied as facts which are really ultimate 

 — that is to say, as facts for which no other explanation 

 is required than that they are part of the Order of Na- 

 ture, and are due to that one great cause, or to that com- 

 bination of causes, from which the whole harmony and 

 unity of Nature is derived. But when we are dealing 

 with facts which cannot be brought within this category, 

 — which cannot be referred to this Order, but which are, 

 on the contrary, an evident departure from it, — then we 

 must feel that these facts require an explanation and a 

 cause as special and exceptional as the results them- 

 selves. 



Th^re is, indeed, one theory in respect to those mys- 

 terious aberrations of the human character, which, al- 

 though widely prevalent, can only be accepted as an ex- 

 planation by those who fail to see in what the real diffi- 

 culty consists. That theory is, that the vicious and 

 destructive habits and tendencies prevailing among men, 

 are not aberraut phenomena at all, but are original con- 

 ditions of our nature, -that the very worst of them have 

 been primitive and universal, so that the lowest forms of 

 savage life are the nearest representatives of the primor- 

 dial condition of the race. 



Now, assuming for the present that this were true, it 

 would follow that the anomaly and exception which Man 

 presents among the unities of Nature is much more vio- 

 lent and more profound than on any other supposition. 

 For it would represent the contrast between his instincts 

 and those of the lower animals as greatest and widest at 

 the very moment when he first appeared among the 

 creatures which, in respect to these instincts, are so 

 superior to himself. And it is to be observed that this 

 argument applies equally to every conceivable theory or 

 belief as to the origin of Man. It is equally true whether 

 he was a special creation, or an unusual birth, or the 

 result of a long series of unusual births each marked 

 by some new accession to the aggrega'e of faculties 

 which distinguish him from the lower animals. As re- 

 gards the anomaly he presents, it matters not which of 

 these theories of his origin be held. If his birth, or his 

 creation, or his development, whatever its methods may 

 have been, took place after the analogy of the lower ani- 

 mals, then, along with his higher powers of mind, there 

 would have been corresponding instincts associated with 

 them to guide and direct those powers in their proper 

 use. It is in this essential condition of all created things 

 that Man, especially in his savage state, presents an abso- 

 lute contrast with the brutes. It is no explanation, but, 

 on the contrary, an insuperable increase of the difficulty, 



