SCIENCE. 



211 



necessary steps to procure these signals. An arrange- 

 ment has been made also by which they may be distrib- 

 uted to jewelers and clockmakers, and manufacturing 

 establishments in the larger cities. 



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). 



Of one thing, at least, we may be tolerably certain re- 

 specting the causes which have led to this extreme dis- 

 persion of Mankind to inhospitable regions, at a vast 

 distance from any possible center of their birth. The first 

 Fuegian was not impelled to Cape Horn by the same 

 motives which impelled Mr. Darwin to visit that country 

 in the Beagle. The first Eskimo, who wintered on the 

 shores of Baffin's Bay, was not induced to do so for 

 the same reasons which led to the expeditions of Back, of 

 Franklin, or of Rae. The first inhabitants of Australasia 

 did not voyage there under conditions similar to those 

 which attended the voyages of Tasman or of Cook. We 

 cannot suppose that those distant shores were first colon- 

 ized by men possessed with the genius, and far advanced 

 in the triumphs, of modern civilization. Still less can we 

 suppose that they went there under the influence of that 

 last development of Man's intellectual nature, which leads 

 him to endure almost any suffering in the cause of purely 

 scientific investigation. 



Nor is this the only solution of the difficulty which 

 seems to be absolutely excluded by the circumstances of 

 the case. Within the historical period, and in the dim 

 centuries which lie immediately beyond it, we know that 

 many lands have been occupied by conquering races com- 

 ing from a distance. Sometimes they came to subdue 

 tribes which had. long preceded them in occupation, but 

 which were ruder, as well as weaker, than themselves. 

 Sometimes, as in the case of the northern nations burst- 

 ing in upon the Roman empire, they came to overthrow a 

 civilization which had once been, and in many ways still 

 was, much higher than their own, but which the progress 

 of development in a wrong direction had sunk in degrada- 

 tion and decay. Sometimes they came simply to colonize 

 new lands, at least as favored, and generally much more 

 favored, than their own — bringing with them all the re- 

 sources of which they were possessed — their flocks and 

 herds, thei'" women and children, as well as their warriors 

 with chariots and horses. Such was the case with some 

 of those nations which at various times have held their 

 sway from Central Asia into Eastern and Central Europe. 

 They were nations on the march. But no movement of a 

 like kind has taken place for many centuries. Lastly, we 

 have the emigrations of our own day, when civilized men, 

 carrying with them all the knowledge, all the require- 

 ments, and all the materials of an advanced civilization, 

 have landed in countries which by means of these could 

 be made fit for settlement, and could be converted into the 

 seats of agriculture and of commerce. 



Not one of these cases can reasonably be supposed to 

 have been the case of the first arrival of Man in Austral- 

 asia. The natural disadvantages of the country, as com- 

 pared with the richness and abundance of the regions 

 from which he must have come, or which were on his 

 southward line of march, preclude the supposition that 

 men were attracted to it by natural objects of desire. We 

 know by experience that if the first settlers had been in a 

 condition to bring with them the higher animals which 

 abound in Asia, these animals would have flourished in 

 Australia as they now do. And so, also, with reference 

 to the cereals — if these had ever been introduced, the 

 modern Australians would not have been wholly without 

 them, and would not have been compelled to live so much 



on the lowest kinds of animal and vegetable food — on 

 fish, lizards, grubs, snakes, and the roots of ferns. 



There is, however, one answer to Mr. Darwin's ques- 

 tion, which satisfies all the conditions of the case. There 

 is one explanation, and only one, of the dispersion of the 

 human race to the uttermost extremities of the habitable 

 globe. The secret lies in that great law which Malthus 

 was the first to observe and to establish — the law, 

 namely, that population is always pressing on the limits 

 of subsistence. There is a constant tendency to multipli- 

 cation beyond those limits. And, among the many con- 

 sequences of this tendency, the necessity of dispersion 

 stands first and foremost. It is true, indeed, that under 

 some conditions, such' as those which have been already 

 indicated, the most energetic races, or the most energetic 

 individuals, have been those who moved. But under 

 many other conditions the advantage has been in favor 

 of those who staid. Quarrels and wars between tribe 

 and tribe, induced by the mere increase of numbers, and 

 by consequent pressure upon the means of living, have 

 been always, ever since Man existed, driving the weaker 

 individuals and the weaker families farther and farther 

 from the original settlements of Mankind. 



Then one great argument remains. In the nature of 

 things the original settlements of Man must of necessity 

 have been the most highly favored in the conditions he re- 

 quires. If, on the commonly received theory of Develop- 

 ment, those conditions produced him, they must have 

 reached at the time when, and in the place where, he arose, 

 the very highest degree of perfect adaptation. He must have 

 been happy in the circumstances in which he found him- 

 self placed, and presumably he must have been contented 

 to remain there. Equally on the theory of Man being a 

 special creation, we must suppose that when weakest and 

 most ignorant he must have been placed in what was to 

 him a garden — that is to say, in some region where the 

 fruits of the earth were abundant and easily accessible. 

 Whether this region were wide or narrow, he would not 

 naturally leave it except from necessity. On every possible 

 supposition, therefore, as to the origin of Man, those who 

 in the dispersion of the race were first subjected to hard 

 and unfavorable conditions would naturally be those who 

 had least strength to meet them, and upon whom they 

 would have accordingly the most depressing effect. This is 

 a process of Natural Rejection which is the inseparable 

 correlative of the process of Natural Selection. It tends 

 to development in a wrong direction by the combined 

 action of two different circumstances which are inherent in 

 the nature of the case. First, it must be always the 

 weaker men who are driven out from comfortable homes ; 

 and, secondly, it must be always to comparativly unfa- 

 vorable regions that they are compelled to fly.. Under 

 the operation of causes so combined as these, it would 

 be strange, indeed, if the physical and mental condition 

 of the tribes which have been exposed to them should 

 remain unchanged. It is true, indeed, that adverse con- 

 ditions, if they be not too severe, may develop energy, 

 and result in the establishment of races of special hardi- 

 hood. And in many cases this has been the actual re- 

 sult. But, on the other hand, if physical conditions be 

 as insuperable as those which prevail in Tierra del Fuego 

 or in Baffin's Bay ; or if, though less sevtre than these, 

 they are nevertheless too hard to be overcome bv the re- 

 sources at the disposal of the men who are driven to en- 

 counter them, then the battle of life becomes a losing 

 one. Under such circumstances, degration is unavoida- 

 ble. As surely as the progress of Man is the result of 

 opportunity, that is to say, as surely as it is due to lhe 

 working of his faculties under stimulating and favoring 

 conditions, so surely must he descend in the scale of in- 

 telligence and culture, when that opportunity is taken 

 from him, and when these faculties are placed under con- 

 ditions where they have no call to work. 



It is, then, easy to see some at least of the external cir- 

 cumstances, which, first, in the natural course of things, 



