New-York tribune., 1894-10-24

ANCIENT AND MEDlAENAL ANTlCiPA-
TIONS OF DARWINISM.


logical Series.
Thi, is a welcome book in the field TO which
1t belongs Blu, the history Of ancient theories
of evolution will not be complete until the no
,ions of the Oriental thinkers on the subject have
been act forth in a. clear light possible. To
these Professor Osborn merely alludes. when he
says Of the Greek philosophers that whatever
they may have drawn from the vague abstract
notions OF development and transformation OF
Asiatic philosophers. they certainly recast mo
comparativey modern evoiutionism." Between
those who say that the Greeks borrowed every
thing from he older culture Of other races and
those who say thet they borrowed nothing there
ought to be some middle ground where the truth
rests II is impossible in modern philosophy 10
describe The history Of thought In any nation
without occasionally stepping outside OF the
boundaries Of that nation TO pick up sugges-
tons from abroad Hume rather than any Ger
man metaphysician. furnishes the key to Kant.
ard without Locke II is vain to hope to com
prehenI the French movement which eliminated
I'm the Encyclopaedia and the Revolution. The
same thing must have been true In measure
of the civilized world during the seventh and
sixth centuries before the Christian era In
Incdern essays-connicting dc they are-upon the
speculation ot those times the most obvious
feature is the general uniformity In spite OF
specific differences. which existed everywhere.
The theory that all things sprang from unity
and must return to unity-the crude ana vague
counterpart OF modern philosophical ideas about
the homogeneity out Of which the coherent het-
erogencity 81 the world gradually emerges-
was all but universal in ancient times. and II
was particularly prominent near the close Of the
sixth century before Christ. 1t has been pointed
on, that the contact and conflict OF various
Ions q
were enough to produce an international phil
osophy Even the comparatively isolated popu-
'ation Of India fcl, the general movement. and
the later Vcdic religion Is described by some
critics as echoing in It's speculations thoughts
about the original unity and the derivative.
nultplex world as well the contradictions
which such a doctrine necessarily produced In
philosophical system. The rise Of buddhism In
the sixth century serves TO fix the date In
general way for the shaping OF thes" ideas In
India: since one learned investigator has
argued buddhism was historically impossible
before they had been worked out. The over
throw II the Rabylonan Empire In the eighth
century and of the native Egyptian polity
few generations later serve also to show when
completely separate and independent systems
could no longer exist-if they ever had existed
ir those countries The period Of the Persian
the new in Greece. The "All-One" philosophy
belongs to this period of international conflict
and political turmoil. when the map Of the whole
civilized world was subjected for long series
Of wears 10 frequent revlsa and when the
chaotic state of human affairs pertnently sug-
gested the study Of world-ends and OF world
beginnings.
Now. this doctrine Of unity and variety lies at
the bottom of all the speculations OF the early
Greek thinkers. so far they are revealed In
the meagre record that was transmitted by tneir
successors Thales said thai water was the unity
out Of which the whole variety of living things
had arisen and this idea put less definitely
and more mythically was known to the Egyp-
tians though they. knowing little OF the sea
and much about Nilotic mud. leaped over TO a
later Greek doctrine. There are two ancient
witnesses Diodorus and Phi.o the Jew. to the
fact that the so-caed Sacred Book" OF the
Egyptians attributed the origin Of all things to
slime In effect this the idea OF Empedocles
whose verses told how the first types OF life on
tie uncultvated land sprang from the minGling
of earth and water. Whether the Agrigentine
philosopher owed his dictum directly TO Egypt
or not his words attest the early spread OF the
theory. They seem To indicate that In l's
earliest form the hypothesis was not hidden by
the mythical garb in which II was afterward
wrapped. Both he and the Egyptians must have
been aware that even in their simple analysis
this pr,mordial slime was not thing. but two
things The process OF evaporation suggested.
particularly 10 the Egyptians. another element,
heat or fire; and they also observed the effect or
the fourth, air. The effort TO show that there
was on the Egyptian monuments anything like
an expression Of the idea that the whole world
was produced by the combination OF a definite
fa Rut n
has been pointed out that four divinites are
sometimes mentioned together who as repre-
sentatives of certain natural phenomena would
adapt themselves to the four elements, thus Ra,
as fire or light; Su air; Seb earth; Osiris. water.
But as matters stand. these correspondences
are scarcely more emphatic than those in the
imprecation Of Agamemnon over the truce with
Troy when he called Zeus and the sum- the
rivers the earth and the gods beneath. as wit
nesses. For there is here something very near
the Egyptian combination, though the an
tique opinion that there was in Agamemnon's
words an intentional al,usion to the four ele-
ments be rejected untenable. II we re-
nember that the last creative period OF Egyptian
priestly philosophy was ,oincident with the ac-
tivity Of Thales Anaxmander and Heracitus-
that is, the seventh and sixth centuries before
Christ-we shall see that 1t is at least plausible
to credit the thought of the Nile in those ages
with turning the old formula of the monuments
to a new purpose. At all events, there Is mani
fest room for a dispute between Empedocles
and the Egyptians about the slime theory. And
this Is not so remote from modern speculation
as might be supposed Diogenes Of Apoonia
worked out the notion. and to these old Greeks
was directly due the notorious ''Ur-Schleim. OF
Lorenzo Oxen, which Professor Osborn seems to
consider, at least dubitatively the first hint
Of the protoplasm. that now figures ex-
tensively in treatises the science OF
life II nowhere else. Again. II the theory
of the four elements can ever be deserted
with certainty on Egyptian monuments. there
will be link between them and the theories