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SCIENCE. 



Those desirous of attending this Congress, 'or of for- 

 warding papers, should put themselves in communication 

 with one of the above named gentlemen. Residents of 

 New York City are welcome to read the prospectus at 

 the office of " Science." 



The Spanish railway authorities have consented to re- 

 duce the fares of those attending this Congress, and other 

 concessions have been arranged. We direct the atten- 

 tion of those who have read early notices of this Con- 

 gress to the fact that the first day of meeting has been 

 changed from the 1 8th to the 22nd of September. This 

 change has been made for the convenience of those who 

 would attend two other International Congresses which 

 meet at about the same lime, one at Berlin and another at 

 Venice. 



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 breaks down the presumption that whatever is most 

 savage is therefore probably the most ancient. And then, 

 when we come to think of it, this idea, from being vague 

 and general, rises into suggestions which are definite and | 

 specific. On the great fundamental subject of the rela- | 

 tion of the sexes, conclusions not less important than 

 those respecting cannibalism and infanticide are forced 

 upon our conviction. We have seen that the cruel treat- 

 ment of the female sex is almost universal among sav- 

 ages, and that it is entirely unknown among the lower 

 animals. If is in the highest degree improbable and un- 

 natural to suppose that this habit can have been prime- 

 val. But the same considerations carry us a great deal 

 farther. They raise a presumption in favor of the latter 

 origin of other habits and customs which are not con- 

 fined to the savage state, but have prevailed, and do now 

 prevail, among nations comparatively civilized. There 

 can have been 110 polygamy when as yet there was only 

 a single pair, or when there were several single pairs 

 widely separated from each other. The presumption, if 

 not the certainty, therefore is, that primeval Man must 

 have been monogamous. It is a presumption supported 

 by the general equality of the sexes in respect to the 

 numbers born, with only just such an excess of the male 

 sex as tends to maintain that equality against the greater 

 risks to life arising out of manly pursuits and duties. 

 Thus the facts of Nature point to polygamy as in all 

 probability a departure from the habits of primeval times. 

 Like considerations set aside, as in a still higher degree 

 unnatural and improbable, the primeval rank of other 

 customs of which the historians of human culture tell 

 us, and probably tell us truly, that there are many sur- 

 viving traces among the existing customs of men. 

 Thus " marriage by capture" cannot have been prime- 

 val. It may be very ancient : but it cannot possibly have 

 arisen until the family of Man had so multiplied and scat- 

 tered, that it had become divided into tribes accustom- 

 ed to act with violence towards each other. And then as 

 regards a custom still more barbarous and savage, namely, 

 that of polyandry, and that which is now euphemistic- 

 ally called "communal marriage," apart from the strong 

 presumption in favor of primeval monogamy, they are 

 stamped by many separate considerations as corruptions 

 and as departures from primeval habits. In the first 

 place, ail such customs are fatally injurious to the prop- 

 agation of the race. In the second place, they are un- 

 known in the animal world. In the third place, their 

 origin can be assigned, in many cases, if not with cer- 

 tainty at least with the highest probability, to one cause, 

 and that is the previously-acquired habit of female infan- 

 ticide. But as regards this last habit, besides the cer- 



tainty that it cannot have been primeval, we know that 

 it has often arisen from customs such as the exorbitant 

 cost of marriage portions, which can only have grown up 

 under long developed and highly artificial conditions of 

 society. 



But powerful as all these separate considerations are 

 to raise at least adverse presumptions against the prim- 

 eval rank of the worst and commonest characteristics of 

 savage life, the force of these considerations is much in- 

 creased when we find that they are closely connected 

 together, and that they all lead up to the recognition of a 

 principle and a law. That principle is no other than the 

 principle .of Development ; that law is no other than the 

 law of Evolution. It is a curious misunderstanding of 

 what that law really is, to suppose that it leads only in 

 one direction. It leads in every direction in which there 

 is at work any one of the " potential energies " of Na- 

 ture. Development is the growth of germs, and accord- 

 ing to the nature of the germ so is the nature of the 

 growth. The flowers and fruits which minister to the 

 use of Man have each their own seed, and so have the 

 briars and thorns which choke them. Evil has its 

 germs as well as good, and the evolution of them is ac- 

 companied by effects to which it is impossible to assign 

 a limit. Movement is the condition of all being, in moral 

 as well as in material things. Just as one thing leads to 

 another in knowledge and in virtue, so does one thing 

 lead to another in ignorance and vice. Those gradual 

 processes of chaDge which arise out of action and re- 

 action between the external condition and the internal 

 nature of Man have an energy in them of infinite com- 

 plexity and power. We stand here on the firm ground 

 of observation and experience. In the shortest space of 

 time, far within the limits even of a single life, we are 

 accustomed to see such processes effectual both to ele- 

 vate and degrade. The weak become weaker and the 

 bad become worse. "To him that hath more is given, 

 and from him that hath* not is taken even that which he 

 seemeth to have." And this law, in the region of char- 

 acter and of morals, is but the counterpart of the law 

 which prevails in the physical regions of Nature, where 

 also Development has its double aspect. It cannot 

 bring one organism to the top without sinking another 

 organism to the bottom. That vast variety of natural 

 causes which have been grouped and almost personified 

 under the phrase " Natural Selection," are causes which 

 necessarily include both favorable and unfavorable con- 

 ditions. Natural Rejection, therefore, is the inseparable 

 correlative of Natural Selection. In the battle of life the 

 the triumph of one individual, or of one species, is the re- 

 sult of causes which bring about the failure of another. 

 But there is this great distinction between the lower ani- 

 mals and man.— that in their case failure involves death 

 and complete extinction, whilst in his case it is compat- 

 ible with prolonged survival. So far as mere existence 

 is concerned, the almost infinite plasticity and adapta- 

 bility of his nature enable him to accommodate himself 

 to the hardest lot, and to the most unfavorable condi- 

 tions. Man is the only animal whose possible distribu- 

 tion is not limited to narrow, or comparatively narrow, 

 areas, in consequence of exclusive dependence upon par- 

 ticular conditions of climate and of productions. Some 

 such conditions of a highly favorable kind may, and 

 indeed must, have governed the selection of his birth- 

 place and of his infancy. But when once born and fairly 

 launched upon his course, it was in his nature to be able 

 to prevail over all or over most of the limitations which 

 are imposed upon the lower animals. But it is this very 

 power of adaptation to unfavorable circumstances which 

 involves of necessity the possibility of his development 

 taking an equally unfavorable direction. If he can rise 

 to any level, so also can he descend to any depth. It is 

 not merely that faculties, for the exercise of which there 

 is no call and no opportunity, remain dormant, but it is 

 also, that if such faculties have already been exercised, 



