The Destiny of Man | Page 4

John Fiske
and by disappear to make way for some
higher creature, and so on forever? In such case, why should we regard
Man as in any higher sense the object of Divine care than a pig? Still
stronger does the case appear when we remember that those countless
adaptations of means to ends in nature, which since the time of Voltaire
and Paley we have been accustomed to cite as evidences of creative
design, have received at the hands of Mr. Darwin a very different
interpretation. The lobster's powerful claw, the butterfly's gorgeous
tints, the rose's delicious fragrance, the architectural instinct of the bee,
the astonishing structure of the orchid, are no longer explained as the
results of contrivance. That simple but wasteful process of survival of
the fittest, through which such marvellous things have come into being,

has little about it that is analogous to the ingenuity of human art. The
infinite and eternal Power which is thus revealed in the physical life of
the universe seems in nowise akin to the human soul. The idea of
beneficent purpose seems for the moment to be excluded from nature,
and a blind process, known as Natural Selection, is the deity that
slumbers not nor sleeps. Reckless of good and evil, it brings forth at
once the mother's tender love for her infant and the horrible teeth of the
ravening shark, and to its creative indifference the one is as good as the
other.
In spite of these appalling arguments the man of science, urged by the
single-hearted purpose to ascertain the truth, be the consequences what
they may, goes quietly on and finds that the terrible theory must be
adopted; the fact of man's consanguinity with dumb beasts must be
admitted. In reaching this conclusion, the man of science reasons upon
the physical facts within his reach, applying to them the same
principles of common-sense whereby our everyday lives are
successfully guided; and he is very apt to smile at the methods of those
people who, taking hold of the question at the wrong end, begin by
arguing about all manner of fancied consequences. For his knowledge
of the history of human thinking assures him that such methods have
through all past time proved barren of aught save strife, while his own
bold yet humble method is the only one through which truth has ever
been elicited. To pursue unflinchingly the methods of science requires
dauntless courage and a faith that nothing can shake. Such courage and
such loyalty to nature brings its own reward. For when once the
formidable theory is really understood, when once its implications are
properly unfolded, it is seen to have no such logical consequences as
were at first ascribed to it. As with the Copernican astronomy, so with
the Darwinian biology, we rise to a higher view of the workings of God
and of the nature of Man than was ever attainable before. So far from
degrading Humanity, or putting it on a level with the animal world in
general, the Darwinian theory shows us distinctly for the first time how
the creation and the perfecting of Man is the goal toward which
Nature's work has all the while been tending. It enlarges tenfold the
significance of human life, places it upon even a loftier eminence than
poets or prophets have imagined, and makes it seem more than ever the

chief object of that creative activity which is manifested in the physical
universe.

III.
On the Earth there will never be a Higher Creature than Man.
In elucidating these points, we may fitly begin by considering the
question as to the possibility of the evolution of any higher creature
than Man, to whom the dominion over this earth shall pass. The
question will best be answered by turning back and observing one of
the most remarkable features connected with the origin of Man and
with his superiority over other animals. And let it be borne in mind that
we are not now about to wander through the regions of unconditional
possibility. We are not dealing with vague general notions of
development, but with the scientific Darwinian theory, which alleges
development only as the result of certain rigorously defined agencies.
The chief among these agencies is Natural Selection. It has again and
again been illustrated how by the cumulative selection and inheritance
of slight physical variations generic differences, like those between the
tiger and the leopard, or the cow and the antelope, at length arise; and
the guiding principle in the accumulation of slight physical differences
has been the welfare of the species. The variant forms on either side
have survived while the constant forms have perished, so that the lines
of demarcation between allied species have grown more and more
distinct, and it is usually only
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