The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-10-23
PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY.
By HERBERT SPENCER.

i
the foremost thinkers Of the age. His works dl
play-and none more than tho prcsent-an enc,
| clopedic range OF kn )wledgo, command Of I'll
| facts and theories Of modern science, and tn;
power, peculiar to high order Of Imagination, b
| which these are generalized and co.ordinated int
a system. Nay, no docs not hesitate to pass be
yond the limits Of discovery and to prognostcat
conclusions which the restless spirit Of inquiry
destined to attain. And everywhere he finds th
| confirmations OF his fayorite hypothesis He sui
sidizes admitted phenomena, ingenious probabil
ties and bold predictions to the law of Evolution
which constitutes the basis OF his philosophy
The germinal principle is as old as Epicurus; bu
tho illustrations are as recent as Darwin and Hux
| ley on the Origin OF Species, and Tyndsll OF
Heat considered as Mode of Motion. The yoic
| is Jacobs, but the hairy hands arc Esau's. With
out tho passion, the brilancy, or The rhythm
with which the author Of he Rc,,rn Nattra-
most imperial Of poets-marshals his atoms int
Cosmos, our modern philosopher sways th.
molecules with the same arrogance, and constrain.
| their tribute in richer palace OF mind.
Evolution, as asserted by Mr.. Spencer, implies
gradual progression from the simple to tho com.
ple1, from the homogeneous to the heterogene
| ous As applied to living organisms 1t embraces
| increase of bulk as well as changes Of structure
| and function-growth rs well as Development
Multiplicity springs from unity AS n cell becomes
= man in q few years, SO, under appropriate con-
ditions, and through q period OF untold millions
OF wears factor of similar sort. ''small semi
| transparent gelatinous spherulep it may be, has
| given origin to the human race. So in all cases.
| In each individual the vital process passes from
the strucureless to the structured state, and be-
comes specialized in function And these succos-
Iivo notifications OF single organism illustrate
and correspond to the history OF q whole succes-
| sion of organisms. Tho genera and families, into
which the living world Is distributed, orc tho pro-
duct OF physical causes, such as arc still in opera
ton. All organic forms arc due to tho gradual
notifications upon notifications and diyergen-
cies ueon diyergenpies, which have accumulated
during myriads OF ages.
Without entering into discussion, we may be
allowed to say, in passing that the analogy is in
complete. It forgets that every such cell is the
product of perfect organism. The world is de-
veloped like an acorn, perhaps: but where is the
oak on which that acorn grew
1t 10 obvious that this doctrine neither requires
nor admits any higher agency in the production Of
life, or in explanation Of its phenomena: 1t re-
idea of creation as 'unt thinkable" II recognizes
only Observation-Disclosures Of state-a to-day,
which absorbs the elements, and changes tho
shapes. of yesterday, Just as wo see forest of
oaks taking the PLACE q fallen forest Of pines,
new and higher forms Of vitality. While inter-
preting tho rccondte laws and processes of lfe ii
relegates the origin OF this power and even the
power itself, to the morning twilight OF tho uni
verse, or the depths of it's primordial night.
u
tive or universal principle in nature, with noga-
tive principle in every particular ANIMAL tho lat
ter or Initiative power constantly acting to indi-
vidualize, and, as it wore, figure the former.
''rhus," he adds "lire is not thing, q self-snb-
sistent hypostasis, but an act and n process. "
This is identical with Mr.. Spencer's view, except
that he attaches much higher value to tho nflu-
ence Of the environments upon the organism.
Life he regards as action and reaction; as func-
tional and structural changes playing upon each
other, and adjusting themselves to external rela-
tions; as matter and motion, redistrihuted by in
cident forces. For while every organism tends to
permanonce, it yet is capable OF change, Crystal
and jelly, tho inert and the impresshe, flow to-
gether III blood and sap, and are varlously affected
by agencies from without. Thus the underlined
'vital force" is stubbornly, gradually, surely
ences and sequences. And life is at once subducd
and perfected by this discipline, as good man by
af1lictien or rather, to adopt the vague language
of our author, this change which wo speak Of
"the continuous adjustment OF internal relations
to external relations" life ITSELF in its broadest
and most complete definition. Now, with all re-
spect to Mr. Spencer and the great thinker whom
he follows, we are constrained 10 say that this
definition il not satisfactory. If life is not the
principle that adjusts, but the adjustment itsolf
what ground is there for speaking of vital force at
oil? And why may wo not accredit tho life CT q
barometer, Of balloon in the dir, or OF ship at
sea, where similar, il less complex, adjustment
Of an object with its environment is continuously
manifested} While our author has grouped with
wonderful comprehensiveness and discrlminatcd
with admin able acuteness, the influence OF circum
stances upon the families of the living he has not
attached sufficient Importance to that sublime and
mysterious energy which in higher organisms
checks and controls the external. tt 6 true that
We are changing with the changing seasons:
Nostra quoque ipsorum, semper, requiesquesne ulla
Corpota veituntur; nee quod fuimusvo, sumusve,
Cras erimus.
But we will heed no poet and no philosopher, who
teaches us that life is nnthing moro than change.
There are degrees of life as we'll ss kinds aud
kingdoms; ltc touched with spirll as well as 4
life gross with earthly clay; and while MIR. Spencer
may proclaim ours to DO but modification, we
feel it to bo real and majestic power.
The evolution hypothesis, i'll its present form,
differs from the Lamarckan, which makes develop
ment depend upon tho desires OF the animal stri-
wing for qualification; thus, for example, n family
OF short legged birds are supposed to have be-
come long logged, in sories of genera ions, by
stretching their legs to got at tho fish Ill the shall
lows. SO crude q theory is now set aside, for the
Darwinian theory of Natural Selection. Tho fact
of such u transmutatioli as the above in admltted;
but it is explained by the variability and atavism
of organic matter and tho conditions OF existence,
l. o. by it tendency to change, its tendency to per-
manonoe, and the effect OF external circumstances,
whether favorable or unfayorabe, upon the origi-
nal type or tho variation. Thus n short legged
shorc-bird gives birth to IN abnormal chick with
longer legs, and thus, being favored by tho abun-
dance of food it is able TO reach in the water food
inaccessible to others; becomes tho thriving pro-
jenitor OF new variety. 1t is able to maintain it.
sef, and also improve its race by crossings, and
even give birth to higher varieties, better ahlo to
endure the struggle for existence MIR. Spcn-
Ger, indeed, docs NOT implicitly accept the
hypothesia of Mir. Darwin. His general theo-
ry is The same, but he calls attention to facts
Al will l.
OF the distinguished naturalist-as, for example,
the nfertility OF hybrids. Ho also notices tsome-
what inconBistently with his own statements else
whsre) the limit imposed upon development. At
certain high stage OF culture the power ofrepro-
duction is enfeebled. And he gives wider scope
to the sway o. circumstances over Organisms Yet
he holds Mr.. Darwin to have shown boyond aues-
ton that % great part OF the facts-perhaps the
greater part-aro explicable only as resulting from
the survival OF individuals which have deyiated, in
some indirectly caused way, FROM tho ancestral
typc." That there is some truth in the argument
VIC too, hold to be unquestionabe. Nav, tho i'm
portanoo Of the doctrine OF evolution in its logti-
mate applications, is profound, In those DAYS,
when certain structural aId functional dyergen-
cies are persistenty urged the distinctions be-
tween man the bestlal and man the immortal, it is
well that we should know how immense ia the array
of facts, accredited by the highest scientific an
thor,tes, which provo that not ono, nor aIl. of the
ds;jnctlOnp insisted upon initiate against the
doa OF a common ancestry to all mea Tho vare-
ties of the human race are not so great as those
which sclective breeding has producod in the fam
lily oft &c rock pigeon. Yet that the principle has
been carried to an unwarranted extreme ID equally
clear There are organisms SO different that their
common origin, oven with the help of Mr. Spenccrs
daarams, is quite ''unthiEkable" To our minds
the idea OF special creation is simpler than that
OF evolution from common mass in such an in
stance, for example, as that OF q star-fish and a
nm ln oil
knowledge much loss wonderful transmutation,
and regard the tribes OF apes with the flial aoc
ton which the evolution hypothesis claims for
them.
1t is impossible, in criticisng work of so i'm
monsc compass, to do moro than exhibit it's gem
eral drift, and even then ono is sometimes in doubt
AZ to the correctness Of his Judgment. No ana
tc table Of contents or minute Edcx serves as
still but partially explored. The volumes, being
published in instalmonts could not bo revised, and
And the sentences aro involved with parenthetic
limitations and burdoned with novel scientific
terms, and with repcttions upon rcpettions, like
tl,otz.