Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-03-24
BRYANT Oh DARWIN.

-Ao KSSN $500 80 q
speech at a meeting Of the alumni OF
Williams college, in which he thus
treated OF DarWinism: It is q good
while since the remark was made by
an English wit that he did not like to
look at monkeys, they seemed to him
so much like poor relations. What
was regarded at that time as a clever
jest has since been taken by an emil
nent naturalist Is the basis of an
extensive system which processes to
account for the o=igin of the human
species. According to Mr.. Darwin,
man is an improved monkey. In his
system the lowest form Of animal life
is a minute animated cell. A number
OF these cells come casually together,
and form a dab of jelly fixed on a crag
In the ocean.
They somehow become arranged in
a sort of symmetry; they gradually
acquire organs; they rise to the dIgni-
ty of oysters and muscles; they mul.
tiply; by a principle of selection on
the part Of the parents they rise
higher and higher in the scale Of
being; they become quadrupeds; they
crawl upon the land; they waddle on
the shore in the shape of seals; they
build houses as beavers; they climb
trees as squirrels; their talOns and
paws become hands furnished with
fingers, and we have the monkey; the
the monkey acquires the faculty Of
speech, and natures into a man. It
is the old theory Of MOnbOddO pro-
pounded a hundred years ago, but
spread over a larger surface, and set
I'LL -gtL 49, f1-.~N-,NsAz1
But allowing all that truth as he
says of the cOnsanguinity Of man and
inferior animals; admitting that we
are OF the same flesh and blood as the
babbOon and the rat, where does he
find his proofs that we are improving
instead of deg%eneratiDg. He claims
that man is an improved monkey;
how does he know that the monkey is
not a degenerate man, a decayed
branch of the human family, fallen
away from the high rank he once held,
and haunted by q dim sentiment OF his
lost dignity, as we may infer from his
melancholy aspect? Improvement,
Mr.. President and gentleman, implies
effort, it is uphill work; degeneraey
Is easy, it asks only neglect, indO-
lence, inaction. How often do the
descendants of illustrious men be
come the most stupid of the human
racel How often are there, each of
whom we may call
1.-THE tenth trsnsmitter of q foolish face"
line of Savage, the best he ever
wrote, worth all his other verses put
together
'Ths tenth trsnsmittar of q human facs,"
aud that face growing mole foolish
from generation to g%enerstioni I
instance the Bourbon family, |
lately reigning in Spain and Naples.
l might also instance the royal family |
Of Austria. There is a whole nation
millions upon millions, our Chinese
whom the better opin.
ions is that they have been going
backward in civilization from century
to century. Perhaps they wear the
as an emblem Of what we are
all coming to some thousands OF years
hence. How, then, can Mr.. Darwin
insist that, If we admit the near kim
bred of man to the inferior animals,
we must believe that our progress has
been upward, and that the noble ami
mails are the progeny of the inferior?
Is not the contrary more prObable?
Is it not more likely that the
Easy road downward has been
that the lower ami
nails are derived from some
degenerate branch of the human race,
md that if we do not labor to keep
he rank we hold, our race may be
away into the meaner tribe
# animals, and f~1nallylinto animaleu
a? Then may our TWeeds become
he pfogenitOrs of those skulking
hieves of the western wilds, the prai-
lie wolves, or may swim stagnant
,ools in the shape of horse-leeches, or !
Istute lawyers may be represented by
oxes, our great architects by colonies
Il beavers, our poets byclOuds of mos
famished and musical; our }
of Divinity say it with all !
aspect to the cloth-by swarms of
he mantis or praying insect, always !
q the attitude of devotion. II we
iold to the Darwin theory-as I do =,
Iot-how are We to know that the
asst multitudes of men and women J
the earth are not the ruins, so to :
peak, Of some nObler species, with .
loTe elevated and perfect faculties, !
physical and moral, but now !
xtinct? :