Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-11-10
The Centaurs.


more interesting 10 examine than the IA
BILE OF the Centaurs. The notion oe such
a race Of formed creatures was firmly
rooted IN the ancient mind, and not soon
relinquished. Although the belief in
their existence was laughed at by many
free-thinkers among the ancients them
selves, from the philosopher Plato, to the
physician Galen. it continued to hold its
own through several centuries Of the
Christian era. st. Jerome, making a dis
tinction between monsters which are
simply fabulous and monsters which rea.-
ly exist, contends that both Centaurs and
Sirens are real: and elsewhere he quotes
the testimony of st. Antony. who deposes
that he once spoke to live Centaur. as
he journeyed through the desert on his
way to visit the hermit Paul To men
who neither knew nor cared about laws
of structure and anatomy, there would be
nothing distasteful or absured in the idea
OF such mixture and duplication of Or
ganlsms. Even to ourselves, if we can
forget our science, the absurditv is not
without its charm. To be part, meta
phorically. of his steed, is the ambition
OF the rider; and to unite the two natures
in one indiyisible being, able TO lean,
gallcp, and exulr in swiftness like
horse, and having at the same
time the erect countenarce and Skill
full hands of man. would DE to
realize something like those physical
Illusions which visit us in dreams. when
the body seems to have thrown off its
natural restraints, and we feel ourselves
careering through space in the exercise
OF miraculous and incompatible powers.
The class of conceptions to which the
Centaurs belong are comparatively rare
IN Greek mythology. A Centaur, made
up of the two most perfect of the animals
in combination, may be an excellent
monster, but is a monster Still; and the
Greek imagination, We know, was too
clear and sane to be prodigal OF monstrosi-
ty. While Egypt and Asia worshiped
composite divinities, half man, half hawk
dog, cat, ape, eagle, or bull, the Greek
took his ideal OF the highest from him
self, and sacrificed to gods after his own
image. In It's obscure origins. indeed, it
is doubtful whether his religion differed
SO much in this respect from the religions
Of his neighbors and in its decline it
tended again to assimilate itself to theirs
till in the later creeds Of Alexandra, An
floch, and Rome, we are used TO finding
all manner Of grotesque and barbarous
deities COMPOUNDED and identified with
the Olympians. But in the good DAYS,
while Greece was really Greece, her gods,
her greater gods at least. were Of no
double nature, but simply shapes of man
or woman made perfect. Monsters, when
they occur, occur always in inferior
place, and with a special character and
significance. Men or woman is mixed
with brute in those NEUROLOGICAL crea,
lures which embody, not the highest, not
the foreseeing and controlling forces of
the universe, but only its Ca
PRECIOUS, violent, or treacherous forces.
those which, though stronger and more
irrepressible than man, arc lower and
binder than he is. Thus the boisterous-
ness of the earth's exuberance is incar
mated in the goat-toot company of satyrs;
the clamorousness and headlong strength
Of rivers in river gods having the
faces of men but the bodies of bulls;
isms, so that we may see the ascending
scale of animated nature mirrored and
summarized in the evolution of eyery
embryo. Further, the marvel to human
intelligence in the development of
feathered fowl out Of the albumen of an
egg is notintrinsically greater than would
be the evolution Of all the flora and fauna
of the universe out of common proto
,plasmic germ. We know that the one
takes place incessaatly, and its mystery
isforgotten In its constancv and common
ness. The other is unknown to expe-
riencc; but the mind can see no obstacle
to it in the nature Of things. It contains
no greater mystery than the former. and
its future demonstration would not ey-
cite surprise. Even within the range of
experience we may witness develop
ment In progress. Alike in the animal
and vegetable kingdoms, among the for
aminlfera and diatoms, change and trans
formations, within a limited field. may
be observed. The Development of hioh-
er organisms IS only an inductiye infer
ence, drawn by analogy, from the phe-
nomena that fall under our observation.
and can be expeIimentaliy investigated.
Even the line between the animal and
the vegetable cannot now be drawn with
the rigor by which the naturalist of the
last generation used to separate the
kingdoms Of nature, and there is reason
to believe that the investigation Of mod
ern biology will result in more
emphatic demonstration of the actual
emergency of fresh types Of oreanizati-n
out OF rudimentary ones. 1t is to denoted,
however, that the discovery of a palnon-
tological for intermediate between man
and the ape would not settle the question
that man was physically the descendant
Oh such an intermediate, nor would it
greatly aid the controversy, except as af-
fording new link in the chain Of organ
lied existence. Dem ns.ration Of the
theory will not be accomplished even by
9 discovery of all the missing links, but
by sci lntific use of the links which we
possess and warrantable infereBces from
them. But does the vital ever proceed
from the non-vital2 Is the boundary be-