0* .•';^',*< ®o J' •A 9^ <*. * %.*^ ' i> .0« DARWIN. Tlie whole of nature may be supposed to consist of two essences; one which may be termed spirit, and the other matter: the former of these possesses the power to commence or produce motion; the latter to receive it.— Zoono?nia, vol. /. § 1. I am ready to allow, * * * that the ultimate cause of all motion is immaterial, that is, God.— lb., vol. I. § 14. Erasmus .Dartvin, 1794. vV. By ROBERT McK^. ORMSBY. NEW YORK: PRINTED BY P. F. McBREEN, 14 & 16 ANN STREET. 7r- Ervtered according to Act of Congress irl the year 1876^ By THOMAS MURPHY, in the Office of tlie Librarian of Congress, at Wasliingtorv, PREFACE. Mr. Huxley recently gave three lectures in New York City, on the horse, showing that at a prior geologic period, he had four toes, and arguing that he was developed from a five toed, or clawed, mam- mal. In his lectures he assumed that the world had a beginning. In speaking of "the hypothesis of the eternity of this state of things in which we now are," he remarked that, "whether true or false, it is not capable of verification by evidences;" and there dropi^ed it. This was a masterly coup de logique! The permanence of the laws and order of nature is a settled presumption, and it is for him who assumes the contrary to produce his proof. The burden of evidence being on the learned professor, he will do well to advance his facts; and assumed facts will not answer. He has only one authority; that is the Bible. Was it on this account that he so tenderly spared Moses, in his lectures, at the expense of the poet Milton! I hope not, for in questions of science we must not believe Moses nor the prophets. Our distinguished friend seemed to feel quiet satisfied that he had argued the horse oif of his hoofs; but he was a little shy about attacking the eternity of the solar system. The learned professor's New York lectures have provoked the evolution of this poem, and I have only to beseech him not to treat it as he did the horse, by too closely scanning its feet; because, if he does, I feel certain he will make the feathers fly, and claim they indicate a fowl origin. Chester Hill, Mt. Vernon, New" Torlc. DARWIN. CIIRISTTAW. Life ! it is the gift of God, Creator Of the world; tlie great arcliitect wlio planned And made the universe. Design is seen In every form of life, that pkiinl}^ shows The workman. There was, of organic forms The first, which, without creative power Could not have sprung from inorganic dust. Evolution ! 'tis this that Huxley gives In place of a creator, with ages As innumerable as sea-shore sands. Original germs there were, some two or three, From wdiicli the varied forms of living things Have developed out, in progressive steps. By natural laws. Thus are we made to see That matter, in its corpuscules, contains Almost creative powers. But still, these germs 6 Of the lowest forms of organic life, With marvellous tendenc}^ to produce Superior species, and endowed with power Of propagation, infinite, — whence came they? Philosopher ! can you tell 1 PHILOSOPHER. Life and God, in existence coeval Are, and both eternaL CHRISTIAX. Did life here exist When the earth was but a iiery vapor? Or an incandescent mass of matter ? PHILOSOPHER. That earth was ever in a gaseous state, Is mere conjecture; and philosophy With conjectures deals not. We think we know That matter is eternal. This premised, We see not why the universe of worlds. As they now in systems revolve in space, Should not be eternal, too. And if so, Why if the solar sj^stem make exception? That these spheres from old to new bodies change We have no knowledge; nor have we knowledge Of any law for such a transformation. 7 CHRISTIAN. Surely tins earth was incandescent once, And destitute of life; or the science Of geology falsely teaches. PlIILOSOPIIEIl. The science of geology is young; The earth is old. And those azoic j'ocks Which liave been thought merely foundation stones Of life's temple here on earth, were, no doubt, Themselves the abodes of life, wlien in their prime. And the direful reign of carbon, also, Is as im^perial now, as in the days Of those old hard-shells, orthoceraicalled. CHRISTIATs^. Why are tilted the strata of the earth, If there's been no contraction of its size ? And how contracted, unless its temperature Has been reduced 'i PIIILOSOPHEK. The present must explain the mystic past. Strata now, in every sea and ocean. Are being formed; and there's but little doubt But time will see them into mountains, Hills and valleys, by some convulsion, thrown. 8 CHRISTIAN. I doubt not, causes for sucli iiplieavals May have existence. Bnt when we behold The earth's tilted strata, from east to west, And from north to sonth, with a general strike^ We mnst seek, for results so uniform, Some single cause. The future, it is true. May upheavals bring; but will the strata. Forced up by local causes, in their trend Be as uniform as those that now are here % PHILOSOPHER. Contraction and expansion, are causes For upheavals: but 'tis the solar heat, AVith gaseous forces in the- rocky depths, And not abatement of internal fires, That cracks up earth's stony vest, or shell, Causing fractures, at right angles running With the equator. I know% it is claimed That earth was once a fiery gas, or mist, Changed to its present state by loss of heat. This was an old school suggestion, and made Before the chemist came. The modern sees That the solar system, if all in gas. Spread out in space, would not, in temperature, Hange very high. 'No law is known to man By which this eartli could in space exist In gaseous state, though great astronomers And geologists of note, have thought so. ClIUISTIAN. At tlie equator, wliere the solar heat Descends in force, the sun's power might be great; But upheavals, in every latitude, From pole to pole, are seen. PHILOSOPHER. Yery true: but the equatorial line Is forever changing; and that, by steps So slow, as to escape the observation Of the astronomer. The polar ice Alone is stationary; under it The earth is moving with regular pace. In perhaps a spiral course, which, in time, All its parts must bring to the icy zone. There, at the poles, are the mills of the gods Which grind so slow and fine. Our continents In those mills are made, together with our soil. Broken rock, dirt, dust, and rounded pebbles Are brought forth, with the emerging continent, And lugged away by ice-bergs, to be strewn 10 Where ocean currents spread them o'er the earth. On our hills, in our vales, we see the marks Of polar ice; the ledges rounded, smoothed And polished by the comminuting mass. The striae left upon these rocky points. Point to the polar realms. CHRISTIAN. The polar zone Is then receding from the Avestern world ? But if the Atlantic basin has moved From beneath the frigid zone, why are found Those fields of coal in the far distant north ? Those carboniferous beds, as we are told, Numerous plants contain of tropic growth. Then why towards the equator should they move ? And why those fossil forests in the north. In the realms of perpetual frost and ice, Unless the earth, if it does move at all, Is creeping the other way 1 Philosophek. First tell me How came those tropic plants, thus fossilized, In the frigid north 'i Around Baffin's Bay The gigantic fern, of an age remote, 11 Carbonized in its native soil, is seen, And speaks like liistoiy of a former age. Tropic plants must within the tropics grow-. Some have said that, warmed by internal fires, The earth was once a sort of hot-house globe, At whose poles no chill atmospheric cold Could check the growth of vegetation. Then was the air warm, indeed, for, aloft, In polar regions, did aspiring plants Spread to the breeze their leafy branches. A summer sky was there, to furnish clouds For genial showers. To impart a warmth. To such extent, to the polar breezes. How hot should be the earth beneath ? Not les^, At least, than broiling point for iish or steaks. Evaporation must ensue, and drouth. As at the equator, roots could not dive For moisture, for they would encounter steam. Fossils of tropic plants and animals In many latitudes are found, which shows That terrestrial changes have oft occurred CHRISTIAN. We have never heard that the latitude Of any place on the earth, has been changed From the earliest ages. 12 PHILOSOPIIEK. Earliest ages ! How long is tliat % Histoiy backward reaches Three thousand years, almost; whereas, a tree^ I have heard it said, may four thousand live. Such teiTestrial changes should be looked for In the record of cycles, only; not In human history, which is limited To events of years. When the artic land Was within the tropics, as once it was. Its departure was very slow, of course, As on its bosom the accumulations Of a vast geologic age, it bore. Which way does the terrestrial movement tend I The question may well be asked; for no change Since the dawn of modern science, will point Its direction. On the Atlantic's shores, Both east and west; in Eastern America And Western Europe, the earth' s rock}^ ribs Show the grinding power of icy mountains. And then, upon the globe's other side, Throughout Siberia's artic realms, 'tis said The frozen elephants with force proclaim A warmer climate at some prior age. Such facts may show that our Atlantic land From Asia came. The Atlantic basin AVas a centi-al point of the polar land That passed beneath the articsnow and ice, With water level changing all the time. The carboniferous treasures which are found In the northern world, must Asiatic be. As also the fossil trees. But the trees, Upright, as now they stand, to have passed Beneath the polar ice, in the ocean Must have been submerged: or they may have grown When the gulf stream bore further west: but plants Of tropic gi'owth, must from the tropics come. CHRISTIAT^. If this be so, there is no primitive Formation ! PiriLOSOPIIER. The}^ view" not the rocks aright Who to the old Silurian sj^stem point As holding the fossilized first parents Of earth's countless species; for that system A¥as in the deep bosom of the ocean . Formed, and was not a fauna rich in life. But, while that formation was in progress, A tertiary, and alluvium, also, 14 Must have been extant, freighted with the life Of the present day, which are now, no doubt, In the ocean's deep bosom buried. No formation o'er all the earth extends; And as each grows up in the ocean's depth, Another must disappear. The faunas Of all formations must depend, of course, On their position in their watery bed. And the Cambrian, 'neatli fifty tliousand feet Of brooding ocean, would not be the home Of the prolific broods of shallow seas. CHRISTIAN. I must beg- To call you back to your definition Of philosopy; to what it deals in. PHILOSOPHER. It deals in facts, and facts alone. CHRISTIAN. Then hold ! Should we not stick to facts — to what we know ? PHILOSOPHER. There are certain known invariable laws Of matter, a knowledge of which makes up 15 The sum of oiir pliilosopj. How moves Tlie earth to warm with snnsliine all her sides, Or how, by wasting fires beneath — by rains Or corroding frosts above, the strata, By disintegration are worn away, Is speculation foreign to our theme. The tracks of time may not be rightly nosed By the keenest scenting philosopher Tliat ever embarked in chase of nature. But this we know, by fair deduction From well known laws, that, as time began not. And as the world is as old as time, All tilings brought forth b}^ time's effluxion. That in the future we see must occur, Must be recurrences of like events Repeated ad inflnitum in the past. That every strata now upon the earth Must some day be into new strata formed, Suggests the changes of the past. But then, We must bear in mind the controlling fact That organic structures are coeval With the universe, and God himself. CHRISTIAlSr. Organic structures embrace all species Of plants and animals. If eternal, Why are some extinct? 16 PHILOSOPHER. Forms alone may cliange. What ends, began. If from primordial forms Species have come by evolution, then Primordials only must eternal be. We trust there' s none extinct. Every species, In its structure, and faunal adaptation, Discloses perfect wisdom; a wisdom JSTot evolved from, but coeternal witli. The organic being. Species do not die out. But change, if into other faunas forced; So that the links of life new forms may take. But the chain itself is never broken. If a creator, and he e'er began. Then to God himself, an eternity Was lost. He began not. Organic forms. With power of sense and thought, were either made Or are eternal. But suppose we say That Darwin' s branchif ers the power of thought And sense embrace. By this we little gain. Whence those branchif ers ? If self propagating, Organic, with sense and thought indued, The embryo of superor races; Although of form most simple in the scale Of animated being, their origin 17 • Is a in^^steiy still. Whence came their germ ? Could it ever have had a starting point \ Was it, by natural selection, teased From Huxley's mud or jelly? Or, in short, Did it come from a creative hand % 'Tis vain to dwarf its origin, and say 'Twas developed out from some still lower germ; For faculties of thouglit were never formed, jN'or were ever organic forms brought forth, From sensless elements, lest this flora Or tliat fauna, sliould be a barren waste Without appropriate occupants. CIIRISTIAlvr And still. It is thought that life is but in its dawn Upon the earth. PHILOSOPHER. Yes: and 'tis because there is and can be No record of the past. Those rocky leaves Of earth's history, which make some note of time. Are scanned with wonder by one whom the thought Of eternity confounds. Life, we see, Is combustion, an all-destroying flame, That leaps from form to form, and leaves behind But an ashy mound. Eternal ages 18 Have seen tliis eartli replete with teeming life, And still the flush of youth is on her brow. He who was, and is, and ever shall be, Is ever young, and in the present lives. Youth is nature's aspect — eternal youth. There's nothing old; for with careful fingers Death, creeping on life's footsteps, erases Every trace of past existence. 'Tis true A few fossils, hid away in oc^an caves, Are by some chance convulsion tlirown to sight. To keep a trace of life in mortal view For a few odd millions of years, to shock The spectator, and fill his soul with awe. But in her living walks, by a system That never changes, nature permits no show Of decrepitude or age to mark her reign. Every mortal being has a time for life. And each nation, tongue and "people, a day And generation. Three score j^ears and ten Are counted the span of a human's life; Two thousand years a people's age. ISTo tongue ISTow numbered among the dead, ever served For life's sweet uses for a longer term; Nor will one ever for a longer serve. Had some wild poet, when Antoninus 19 Reigned o'er Rome's imperial realms;— wlien, indeed, The whole civilized world itself was Rome, Her laws, letters and language extending From Asia's borders to the British Isles; — To that imperial lord have said, "My Lord, In five hundred years the Latin will cease To be a spoken language;" his lordship Would have shown incredulity, no doubt. No doubt but peoples spring, as by a sort Of evolution, from human masses Derived from disintegrated nations : But human history goes not back so far. In ten thousand years from now, no knowledge Of any art, tongue, people or nation, At present existing upon this earth. Will survive. Aye : let us look to the time When from the Atlantic a continent Shall appear. History will repeat itself. Prophetic races lirst come forth, of course,; Then, by slow degrees, midst bloody conflicts, Civilization wins her transient reign. The number of dead and forgotten tongues In the dark past buried, is infinite. CHRISTIATs^. Granted tlien, by the power of evolution, 20 For various species from the lower forms To spring, tlie eternity of organic life Has a fairer look. The earth yet may meet, What in the distant past it must have seen, Great climatic changes, hostile to life; Still, it v^onld be rash to say that all life. By such changes, could ever be, on land. Or in the deep, destroyed. If eternal We find the earth, then dates life upon it, Witli God's existence. PHILOSOPHER. Climatic and other changes on earth Must oft occur, which would the forms of life Destroy or change. Tliese changes simply mark The limits of variation of plants, And animals. Therefore, if by such change, Some species disappear, and other forms Are introduced, through the conservative, And wondrously preserving force of life, Struggling for existance, in a new state Of being, we witness an act creative, . In eif ect, but reparative in fact. CHEISTIAlSr. Why not the earth its life ? Each element, (And there are not more than four score in all,) 21 Has a vital principle of its own : And eacli, in its normal state, is a gas. If eartli be resolved to gas, the gases, What e'er their relative gravities, must, In space, by well known law^s, in social gronp Become diffused. A reign of death, indeed ! Life, conveyed by electric spark, or ray Of light, may produce the material forms In which w^e find them. If w^e say this earth, Touched by the vital spark, from gaseous state Came forth, with discharge of imprisoned heat, We must expect, w^itli all organic forms, That it has a day of dissolution, PHILOSOPHER. Earth die like man ! The vital spark to leave, And all resolved to gas ! Is life distinct From earth, with molding power; or did the earth Develope life % The embryo, or the germ, A mere cell, seen by microscopic eye, By laws of the mysterous force of life, Assimilates the organic elements Supplied from Nature's exhaustless stores. The vital spark ! 'tis not galvanic, 'J 22 Generated in the organic cells; But a force tliat, in those cells, forever Has held its reign; reigning through organs Cerebral, indned with the power of thought Which conscious is, through the voluntary, But not, when through the involuntary, System, acting. It never sleeps, and is A controlling powder, and the providence Of living things. This providence is shown At every stage of being. The wondrous force Called vis medicatrix; the instincts That never err : the natural passions Which, at every point of the being's life. Promotes ihii success of a destined end; And then the plan or scheme, as if designed By wisdom divine, by which the species Are from extinction saved; this perfect round Of well planned means to ends, invests this life, This ruling force of the organic being. With something more than mere material powers. But not alone within the tissue cell Works this magic force; but, likewise, without, Its powers are sometimes felt, and are the cause Of what have been thought interpositions From the unseen world. Its sphere is not known. 23 We simply understand, it is tlie force That controls existence from end to end. Seeing all its objects attained in full. Man is tlionglit the wisest of breathing things : But without control of this higher power, His existence would find an end at once. When the individual's career is o'er And every object of his life obtained, What then remains, and what its destined end ? Many look with dread on dissolution. As though life could ever become extinct; But such forebodings are but borrowed fears. Death is a phantom; not a real foe. All creeping, breathing things, are here fixed fast, And must here remain. Eternal wisdom With which we find this endless life imbued. Has lodged the highest joy in youthful veins. And hence permits, not death, but renewals To everything that lives. Each germ thrown oif By the parent plant, animal, or man. Is that parent's self — is his very being — With all his habitudes, moral, mental And physical, indued. Throughout his life Such germs must be, in numbers vast, evolved, And in them, as they grow up around him, 24 Does the parent, with life renewed, exist. These emanations from the parent stock Draws each a part of the parental life. And are, as is seen, but transition steps Of the paternal being, who tlins goes forth. In yonth and beanty, in life's new career. Tims renewed, the new form snrvives the old. Which yields to dissolntion : but this fate — All dreaded death — ^when Nature's path is trod, No terror has — has no pang. One by one. As age advances, the ruling passions And strong desires of early days, depart, Till the mind itself is almost a blank. Soon memory ceases to recall ideas Of events or forms; and the aged one, Fed like a babe, step by step, weaker grows, ITntill naught but the withered form of man E,emains. By slow degrees, the senses all Are seen to fail; the eyes no longer see, 'Not longer hear the ears; nor any taste In the palate left. Before the lingering. Vital spark shall go out, all sense and thought Will long have ceased. The change is then complete; And the monumental stone simply marks One stage of man' s existence. 25 CHRISTIAN. With your pliilosopliy, I find no i'anlt. You grant me God; and, in organic life, You find a providence; and races new, Evolved from antecedant races, wliicli, In one sense, you say, is called creation. That God is eternal, I will concede. If earth began, 'twas not the beginning Of God, nor of his world; but must have been One stage, only, in an infinite round Of transformations, which never began, And, hence, will never end. God's magnitude Will not be compressed to the dimensions Of man' s philosophy. We must enlarge To take him in, or our structures fall At his approach. Man is a finite being, And must build his philosophic systems With movable timbers, because often He will have to alter and enlarge them. I think well of your speculations, for. It is the true sphere of philosophy To find out God, and not ignore him. ^JI»8 ^^^ '^^^ ^v .. ^^ *^- .JW^\^^^ \''f>^\^^ %^^^\o«-* \^ ® w© ^ *^ « « « xl <=x. .^ €■.. *-T; %^' 4Q^ .^^ ^^-^^^ V ^^ %-rr:*:.* .# » ^*.# - -*» ,# "^ - ^* '& ^ l ,4 Oft V .^ >^ HO,.