History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
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Title: History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
Author: Andrew Dickson White
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM ***
Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer
HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM
By Andrew Dickson White
Two Volumes Combined
To the Memory of
EZRA CORNELL
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK.
Thoughts that great hearts once broke for, we
Breathe cheaply in the common air.--LOWELL
Dicipulus est prioris posterior dies.--PUBLIUS SYRUS
Truth is the daughter of Time.--BACON
The Truth shall make you free.--ST. JOHN, viii, 32.
INTRODUCTION
My book is ready for the printer, and as I begin this preface my eye
lights upon the crowd of Russian peasants at work on the Neva under my
windows. With pick and shovel they are letting the rays of the April sun
into the great ice barrier which binds together the modern quays and the
old granite fortress where lie the bones of the Romanoff Czars.
This barrier is already weakened; it is widely decayed, in many places
thin, and everywhere treacherous; but it is, as a whole, so broad, so
crystallized about old boulders, so imbedded in shallows, so wedged into
crannies on either shore, that it is a great danger. The waters from
thousands of swollen streamlets above are pressing behind it; wreckage
and refuse are piling up against it; every one knows that it must yield.
But there is danger that it may resist the pressure too long and break
suddenly, wrenching even the granite quays from their foundations,
bringing desolation to a vast population, and leaving, after the
subsidence of the flood, a widespread residue of slime, a fertile
breeding-bed for the germs of disease.
But the patient mujiks are doing the right thing. The barrier, exposed
more and more to the warmth of spring by the scores of channels they are
making, will break away gradually, and the river will flow on beneficent
and beautiful.
My work in this book is like that of the Russian mujik on the Neva. I
simply try to aid in letting the light of historical truth into that
decaying mass of outworn thought which attaches the modern world to
mediaeval conceptions of Christianity, and which still lingers among
us--a most serious barrier to religion and morals, and a menace to the
whole normal evolution of society.
For behind this barrier also the flood is rapidly rising--the flood
of increased knowledge and new thought; and this barrier also, though
honeycombed and in many places thin, creates a danger--danger of a
sudden breaking away, distressing and calamitous, sweeping before it not
only out worn creeds and noxious dogmas, but cherished principles
and ideals, and even wrenching out most precious religious and moral
foundations of the whole social and political fabric.
My hope is to aid--even if it be but a little--in the gradual and
healthful dissolving away of this mass of unreason, that the stream of
"religion pure and undefiled" may flow on broad and clear, a blessing to
humanity.
And now a few words regarding the evolution of this book.
It is something over a quarter of a century since I labored with Ezra
Cornell in founding the university which bears his honored name.
Our purpose was to establish in the State of New York an institution for
advanced instruction and research, in which science, pure and applied,
should have an equal place with literature; in which the study of
literature, ancient and modern, should be emancipated as much as
possible from pedantry; and which should be free from various useless
trammels and vicious methods which at that period hampered many, if not
most, of the American universities and colleges.
We had especially determined that the institution should be under the
control of no political party and of no single religious sect, and with
Mr. Cornell's approval I embodied stringent provisions to this effect in
the charter.
It had certainly never entered into the mind of either of us that in all
this we were doing anything irreligious or unchristian. Mr. Cornell
was reared a member of the Society of Friends; he had from his fortune
liberally aided every form of Christian effort which he found going on
about him, and among the permanent trustees of the public library
which he had already founded, he had named all the clergymen of
the town--Catholic and Protestant. As for myself, I had been bred a
churchman, had recently been elected a trustee of one church college,
and a professor in another; those nearest and dearest to me were
devoutly religious; and, if I may be allowed to speak of a matter so
personal to my self, my most cherished friendships were among deeply
religious men and women, and my greatest sources of enjoyment were
ecclesiastical architecture, religious music, and the more devout forms
of poetry. So, far from wishing to injure Christianity, we both hoped to
promote it; but we did not confound religion with sectarianism, and we
saw in the sectarian character of American colleges and universities as
a whole, a reason for the poverty of the advanced instruction then given
in so many of them.
It required no great acuteness to see that a system of control which, in
selecting a Professor of Mathematics or Language or Rhetoric or Physics
or Chemistry, asked first and above all to what sect or even to what
wing or branch of a sect he belonged, could hardly do much to advance
the moral, religious, or intellectual development of mankind.
The reasons for the new foundation seemed to us, then, so cogent that
we expected the co-operation of all good citizens, and anticipated no
opposition from any source.
As I look back across the intervening years, I know not whether to be
more astonished or amused at our simplicity.
Opposition began at once. In the State Legislature it confronted us at
every turn, and it was soon in full blaze throughout the State--from the
good Protestant bishop who proclaimed that all professors should be in
holy orders, since to the Church alone was given the command, "Go, teach
all nations," to the zealous priest who published a charge that Goldwin
Smith--a profoundly Christian scholar--had come to Cornell in order
to inculcate the "infidelity of the Westminster Review"; and from the
eminent divine who went from city to city, denouncing the "atheistic
and pantheistic tendencies" of the proposed education, to the perfervid
minister who informed a denominational synod that Agassiz, the last
great opponent of Darwin, and a devout theist, was "preaching Darwinism
and atheism" in the new institution.
As the struggle deepened, as hostile resolutions were introduced into
various ecclesiastical bodies, as honored clergymen solemnly warned
their flocks first against the "atheism," then against the "infidelity,"
and finally against the "indifferentism" of the university, as devoted
pastors endeavoured to dissuade young men from matriculation, I took the
defensive, and, in answer to various attacks from pulpits and religious
newspapers, attempted to allay the fears of the public. "Sweet
reasonableness" was fully tried. There was established and endowed in
the university perhaps the most effective Christian pulpit, and one of
the most vigorous branches of the Christian Association, then in the
United States; but all this did nothing to ward off the attack.
The clause in the charter of the university forbidding it to give
predominance to the doctrines of any sect, and above all the fact that
much prominence was given to instruction in various branches of science,
seemed to prevent all compromise, and it soon became clear that to stand
on the defensive only made matters worse. Then it was that there was
borne in upon me a sense of the real difficulty--the antagonism between
the theological and scientific view of the universe and of education in
relation to it; therefore it was that, having been invited to deliver a
lecture in the great hall of the Cooper Institute at New York, I took
as my subject The Battlefields of Science, maintaining this thesis which
follows:
In all modern history, interference with science in the supposed
interest of religion, no matter how conscientious such interference
may have been, has resulted in the direst evils both to religion
and science, and invariably; and, on the other hand, all untrammeled
scientific investigation, no matter how dangerous to religion some of
its stages may have seemed for the time to be, has invariably resulted
in the highest good both of religion and science.
The lecture was next day published in the New York Tribune at the
request of Horace Greeley, its editor, who was also one of the Cornell
University trustees. As a result of this widespread publication and
of sundry attacks which it elicited, I was asked to maintain my thesis
before various university associations and literary clubs; and I shall
always remember with gratitude that among those who stood by me and
presented me on the lecture platform with words of approval and cheer
was my revered instructor, the Rev. Dr. Theodore Dwight Woolsey, at that
time President of Yale College.
My lecture grew--first into a couple of magazine articles, and then into
a little book called The Warfare of Science, for which, when republished
in England, Prof. John Tyndall wrote a preface.
Sundry translations of this little book were published, but the
most curious thing in its history is the fact that a very friendly
introduction to the Swedish translation was written by a Lutheran
bishop.
Meanwhile Prof. John W. Draper published his book on The Conflict
between Science and Religion, a work of great ability, which, as I then
thought, ended the matter, so far as my giving it further attention was
concerned.
But two things led me to keep on developing my own work in this field:
First, I had become deeply interested in it, and could not refrain from
directing my observation and study to it; secondly, much as I admired
Draper's treatment of the questions involved, his point of view and mode
of looking at history were different from mine.
He regarded the struggle as one between Science and Religion. I believed
then, and am convinced now, that it was a struggle between Science and
Dogmatic Theology.
More and more I saw that it was the conflict between two epochs in the
evolution of human thought--the theological and the scientific.
So I kept on, and from time to time published New Chapters in the
Warfare of Science as magazine articles in The Popular Science Monthly.
This was done under many difficulties. For twenty years, as President of
Cornell University and Professor of History in that institution, I was
immersed in the work of its early development. Besides this, I could not
hold myself entirely aloof from public affairs, and was three times sent
by the Government of the United States to do public duty abroad: first
as a commissioner to Santo Domingo, in 1870; afterward as minister to
Germany, in 1879; finally, as minister to Russia, in 1892; and was
also called upon by the State of New York to do considerable labor in
connection with international exhibitions at Philadelphia and at Paris.
I was also obliged from time to time to throw off by travel the effects
of overwork.
The variety of residence and occupation arising from these causes may
perhaps explain some peculiarities in this book which might otherwise
puzzle my reader.
While these journeyings have enabled me to collect materials over a
very wide range--in the New World, from Quebec to Santo Domingo and from
Boston to Mexico, San Francisco, and Seattle, and in the Old World from
Trondhjem to Cairo and from St. Petersburg to Palermo--they have often
obliged me to write under circumstances not very favorable: sometimes
on an Atlantic steamer, sometimes on a Nile boat, and not only in my
own library at Cornell, but in those of Berlin, Helsingfors, Munich,
Florence, and the British Museum. This fact will explain to the
benevolent reader not only the citation of different editions of the
same authority in different chapters, but some iterations which in the
steady quiet of my own library would not have been made.
It has been my constant endeavour to write for the general reader,
avoiding scholastic and technical terms as much as possible and stating
the truth simply as it presents itself to me.
That errors of omission and commission will be found here and there is
probable--nay, certain; but the substance of the book will, I believe,
be found fully true. I am encouraged in this belief by the fact that, of
the three bitter attacks which this work in its earlier form has already
encountered, one was purely declamatory, objurgatory, and hortatory, and
the others based upon ignorance of facts easily pointed out.
And here I must express my thanks to those who have aided me. First and
above all to my former student and dear friend, Prof. George Lincoln
Burr, of Cornell University, to whose contributions, suggestions,
criticisms, and cautions I am most deeply indebted; also to my friends
U. G. Weatherly, formerly Travelling Fellow of Cornell, and now
Assistant Professor in the University of Indiana,--Prof. and Mrs. Earl
Barnes and Prof. William H. Hudson, of Stanford University,--and Prof.
E. P Evans, formerly of the University of Michigan, but now of Munich,
for extensive aid in researches upon the lines I have indicated to them,
but which I could never have prosecuted without their co-operation.
In libraries at home and abroad they have all worked for me most
effectively, and I am deeply grateful to them.
This book is presented as a sort of Festschrift--a tribute to Cornell
University as it enters the second quarter-century of its existence, and
probably my last tribute.
The ideas for which so bitter a struggle was made at its foundation
have triumphed. Its faculty, numbering over one hundred and, fifty;
its students, numbering but little short of two thousand; its noble
buildings and equipment; the munificent gifts, now amounting to millions
of dollars, which it has received from public-spirited men and women;
the evidences of public confidence on all sides; and, above all,
the adoption of its cardinal principles and main features by various
institutions of learning in other States, show this abundantly. But
there has been a triumph far greater and wider. Everywhere among the
leading modern nations the same general tendency is seen. During the
quarter-century just past the control of public instruction, not only in
America but in the leading nations of Europe, has passed more and more
from the clergy to the laity. Not only are the presidents of the larger
universities in the United States, with but one or two exceptions,
laymen, but the same thing is seen in the old European strongholds of
metaphysical theology. At my first visit to Oxford and Cambridge, forty
years ago, they were entirely under ecclesiastical control. Now, all
this is changed. An eminent member of the present British Government has
recently said, "A candidate for high university position is handicapped
by holy orders." I refer to this with not the slightest feeling of
hostility toward the clergy, for I have none; among them are many of my
dearest friends; no one honours their proper work more than I; but the
above fact is simply noted as proving the continuance of that evolution
which I have endeavoured to describe in this series of monographs--an
evolution, indeed, in which the warfare of Theology against Science has
been one of the most active and powerful agents. My belief is that in
the field left to them--their proper field--the clergy will more
and more, as they cease to struggle against scientific methods and
conclusions, do work even nobler and more beautiful than anything they
have heretofore done. And this is saying much. My conviction is that
Science, though it has evidently conquered Dogmatic Theology based on
biblical texts and ancient modes of thought, will go hand in hand
with Religion; and that, although theological control will continue
to diminish, Religion, as seen in the recognition of "a Power in the
universe, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness," and in the love
of God and of our neighbor, will steadily grow stronger and stronger,
not only in the American institutions of learning but in the world
at large. Thus may the declaration of Micah as to the requirements of
Jehovah, the definition by St. James of "pure religion and undefiled,"
and, above all, the precepts and ideals of the blessed Founder of
Christianity himself, be brought to bear more and more effectively on
mankind.
I close this preface some days after its first lines were written.
The sun of spring has done its work on the Neva; the great river flows
tranquilly on, a blessing and a joy; the mujiks are forgotten. A. D. W.
LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, ST. PETERSBURG,
April 14,1894.
P.S.--Owing to a wish to give more thorough revision to some parts of my
work, it has been withheld from the press until the present date. A. D.
W.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N.Y.,
August 15, 1895.
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
CHAPTER I.
FROM CREATION TO EVOLUTION.
I. The Visible Universe.
Ancient and medieval views regarding the manner of creation
Regarding the matter of creation
Regarding the time of creation
Regarding the date of creation
Regarding the Creator
Regarding light and darkness
Rise of the conception of an evolution: among the Chaldeans, the
Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans
Its survival through the Middle Ages, despite the disfavour of
the Church
Its development in modern times.--The nebular hypothesis and its
struggle with theology
The idea of evolution at last victorious
Our sacred books themselves an illustration of its truth
The true reconciliation of Science and Theology
II. Theological Teachings regarding the Animals and Man.
Ancient and medieval representations of the creation of man
Literal acceptance of the book of Genesis by the Christian
fathers
By the Reformers
By modern theologians, Catholic and Protestant
Theological reasoning as to the divisions of the animal kingdom
The Physiologus, the Bestiaries, the Exempila
Beginnings of sceptical observation
Development of a scientific method in the study of Nature
Breaking down of the theological theory of creation
III. Theological and Scientific Theories of an Evolution in
Animated Nature.
Ideas of evolution among the ancients
In the early Church
In the medieval Church
Development of these ideas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth
centuries
The work of De Maillet
Of Linneus
Of Buffon
Contributions to the theory of evolution at the close of the
eighteenth century
The work of Treviranus and Lamarck
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier
Development of the theory up to the middle of the nineteenth
century
The contributions of Darwin and Wallace
The opposition of Agassiz
IV. The Final Effort of Theology.
Attacks on Darwin and his theories in England
In America
Formation of sacro-scientific organizations to combat the theory
of evolution
The attack in France
In Germany
Conversion of Lyell to the theory of evolution
The attack of Darwin's Descent of Man
Difference between this and the former attack
Hostility to Darwinism in America
Change in the tone of the controversy.--Attempts at compromise
Dying-out of opposition to evolution
Last outbursts of theological hostility
Final victory of evolution
CHAPTER II.
GEOGRAPHY
I. The Form of the Earth.
Primitive conception of the earth as flat
In Chaldea and Egypt
In Persia
Among the Hebrews
Evolution, among the Greeks, of the idea of its sphericity
Opposition of the early Church
Evolution of a sacred theory, drawn from the Bible
Its completion by Cosmas Indicopleustes
Its influence on Christian thought
Survival of the idea of the earth's sphericity--its acceptance by
Isidore and Bede
Its struggle and final victory
II. The Delineation of the Earth.
Belief of every ancient people that its own central place was the
centre of the earth
Hebrew conviction that the earth's centre was at Jerusalem
Acceptance of this view by Christianity
Influence of other Hebrew conceptions--Gog and Magog, the "four
winds," the waters "on an heap"
III. The Inhabitants of the Earth.
The idea of antipodes
Its opposition by the Christian Church--Gregory Nazianzen,
Lactantius, Basil, Ambrose, Augustine, Procopius of Gaza, Cosmas,
Isidore
Virgil of Salzburg's assertion of it in the eighth century
Its revival by William of Conches and Albert the Great in the
thirteenth
Surrender of it by Nicolas d'Oresme
Fate of Peter of Abano and Cecco d' Ascoli
Timidity of Pierre d'Ailly and Tostatus
Theological hindrance of Columbus
Pope Alexander VI's demarcation line
Cautious conservatism of Gregory Reysch
Magellan and the victory of science
IV. The Size of the Earth.
Scientific attempts at measuring the earth
The sacred solution of the problem
Fortunate influence of the blunder upon Columbus
V. The Character of the Earth's Surface.
Servetus and the charge of denying the fertility of Judea
Contrast between the theological and the religious spirit in
their effects on science
CHAPTER III.
ASTRONOMY.
I. The Old Sacred Theory of the Universe.
The early Church's conviction of the uselessness of astronomy
The growth of a sacred theory--Origen, the Gnostics, Philastrius,
Cosmas, Isidore
The geocentric, or Ptolemaic, theory, its origin, and its
acceptance by the Christian world
Development of the new sacred system of astronomy--the
pseudo-Dionysius, Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas
Its popularization by Dante
Its details
Its persistence to modern times
II. The Heliocentric Theory.
Its rise among the Greeks--Pythagoras, Philolaus, Aristarchus
Its suppression by the charge of blasphemy
Its loss from sight for six hundred Years, then for a thousand
Its revival by Nicholas de Cusa and Nicholas Copernicus
Its toleration as a hypothesis
Its prohibition as soon as Galileo teaches it as a truth
Consequent timidity of scholars--Acosta, Apian
Protestantism not less zealous in opposition than
Catholicism--Luther Melanchthon, Calvin, Turretin
This opposition especially persistent in England--Hutchinson,
Pike, Horne, Horsley, Forbes, Owen, Wesley
Resulting interferences with freedom of teaching
Giordano Bruno's boldness and his fate
The truth demonstrated by the telescope of Galileo
III. The War upon Galileo.
Concentration of the war on this new champion
The first attack
Fresh attacks--Elci, Busaeus, Caccini, Lorini, Bellarmin
Use of epithets
Attempts to entrap Galileo
His summons before the Inquisition at Rome
The injunction to silence, and the condemnation of the theory of
the earth's motion
The work of Copernicus placed on the Index
Galileo's seclusion
Renewed attacks upon Galileo--Inchofer, Fromundus
IV. Victory of the Church over Galileo
Publication of his Dialogo
Hostility of Pope Urban VIII
Galileo's second trial by the Inquisition
His abjuration
Later persecution of him
Measures to complete the destruction of the Copernican theory
Persecution of Galileo's memory
Protestant hostility to the new astronomy and its champions
V. Results of the Victory over Galileo.
Rejoicings of churchmen over the victory
The silencing of Descartes
Persecution of Campanella and of Kepler
Persistence and victory of science
Dilemma of the theologians
Vain attempts to postpone the surrender
VI. The Retreat of the Church after its Victory over Galileo.
The easy path for the Protestant theologians
The difficulties of the older Church.--The papal infallibility
fully committed against the Copernican theory
Attempts at evasion--first plea: that Galileo was condemned not
for affirming the earth's motion, but for supporting it from
Scripture
Its easy refutation
Second plea: that he was condemned not for heresy, but for
contumacy
Folly of this assertion
Third plea: that it was all a quarrel between Aristotelian
professors and those favouring the experimental method
Fourth plea: that the condemnation of Galileo was "provisory"
Fifth plea: that he was no more a victim of Catholics than of
Protestants
Efforts to blacken Galileo's character
Efforts to suppress the documents of his trial
Their fruitlessness
Sixth plea: that the popes as popes had never condemned his
theory
Its confutation from their own mouths
Abandonment of the contention by honest Catholics
Two efforts at compromise--Newman, De Bonald
Effect of all this on thinking men
The fault not in Catholicism more than in Protestantism--not in
religion, but in theology
CHAPTER IV.
FROM "SIGNS AND WONDERS" TO LAW IN THE HEAVENS.
I. The Theological View.
Early beliefs as to comets, meteors, and eclipses
Their inheritance by Jews and Christians
The belief regarding comets especially harmful as a source of
superstitious terror
Its transmission through the Middle Ages
Its culmination under Pope Calixtus III
Beginnings of scepticism--Copernicus, Paracelsus, Scaliger
Firmness of theologians, Catholic and Protestant, in its support
II. Theological Efforts to crush the Scientific View.
The effort through the universities.--The effort through the
pulpits
Heerbrand at Tubingen and Dieterich at Marburg
Maestlin at Heidelberg
Buttner, Vossius, Torreblanca, Fromundus
Father Augustin de Angelis at Rome
Reinzer at Linz
Celichius at Magdeburg
Conrad Dieterich's sermon at Ulm
Erni and others in Switzerland
Comet doggerel
Echoes from New England--Danforth, Morton, Increase Mather
III. The Invasion of Scepticism.
Rationalism of Cotton Mather, and its cause
Blaise de Vigenere
Erastus
Bekker, Lubienitzky, Pierre Petit
Bayle
Fontenelle
The scientific movement beneath all this
IV. Theological Efforts at Compromise.--The Final Victory of
Science.
The admission that some comets are supralunar
Difference between scientific and theological reasoning
Development of the reasoning of Tycho and Kepler--Cassini, Hevel,
Doerfel, Bernouilli, Newton
Completion of the victory by Halley and Clairaut
Survivals of the superstition--Joseph de Maistre, Forster Arago's
statistics
The theories of Whiston and Burnet, and their influence in
Germany
The superstition ended in America by the lectures of Winthrop
Helpful influence of John Wesley
Effects of the victory
CHAPTER V.
FROM GENESIS TO GEOLOGY.
I. Growth of Theological Explanations
Germs of geological truth among the Greeks and Romans
Attitude of the Church toward science
Geological theories of the early theologians
Attitude of the schoolmen
Contributions of the Arabian schools
Theories of the earlier Protestants
Influence of the revival of learning
II. Efforts to Suppress the Scientific View.
Revival of scientific methods
Buffon and the Sorbonne
Beringer's treatise on fossils
Protestant opposition to the new geology---the works of Burnet,
Whiston, Wesley, Clark,
Watson, Arnold, Cockburn, and others
III. The First Great Effort of Compromise, based on the Flood of
Noah.
The theory that fossils were produced by the Deluge
Its acceptance by both Catholics and Protestants--Luther, Calmet
Burnet, Whiston, Woodward, Mazurier, Torrubia, Increase Mather
Scheuchzer
Voltaire's theory of fossils
Vain efforts of enlightened churchmen in behalf of the scientific
view
Steady progress of science--the work of Cuvier and Brongniart
Granvile Penn's opposition
The defection of Buckland and Lyell to the scientific side
Surrender of the theologians
Remnants of the old belief
Death-blow given to the traditional theory of the Deluge by the
discovery of the Chaldean accounts
Results of the theological opposition to science
IV. Final Efforts at Compromise--The Victory of Science
complete.
Efforts of Carl von Raumer, Wagner, and others
The new testimony of the caves and beds of drift as to the
antiquity of man
Gosse's effort to save the literal interpretation of Genesis
Efforts of Continental theologians
Gladstone's attempt at a compromise
Its demolition by Huxley
By Canon Driver
Dean Stanley on the reconciliation of Science and Scripture
CHAPTER VI.
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN, EGYPTOLOGY, AND ASSYRIOLOGY.
I. The Sacred Chronology.
Two fields in which Science has gained a definite victory over
Theology
Opinions of the Church fathers on the antiquity of man
The chronology of Isidore
Of Bede
Of the medieval Jewish scholars
The views of the Reformers on the antiquity of man
Of the Roman Church
Of Archbishop Usher
Influence of Egyptology on the belief in man's antiquity
La Peyrere's theory of the Pre-Adamites
Opposition in England to the new chronology
II. The New Chronology.
Influence of the new science of Egyptology on biblical chronology
Manetho's history of Egypt and the new chronology derived from it
Evidence of the antiquity of man furnished by the monuments of
Egypt
By her art
By her science
By other elements of civilization
By the remains found in the bed of the Nile
Evidence furnished by the study of Assyriology
CHAPTER VII.
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN AND PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY.
I. The Thunder-stones.
Early beliefs regarding "thunder-stones"
Theories of Mercati and Tollius regarding them
Their identification with the implements of prehistoric man
Remains of man found in caverns
Unfavourable influence on scientific activity of the political
conditions of the early part of the nineteenth century
Change effected by the French Revolution of to {??}
Rallying of the reactionary clerical influence against science
II. The Flint Weapons and Implements.
Boucher de Perthes's contributions to the knowledge of
prehistoric man
His conclusions confirmed by Lyell and others
Cave explorations of Lartet and Christy
Evidence of man's existence furnished by rude carvings
Cave explorations in the British Islands
Evidence of man's existence in the Drift period
In the early Quaternary and in the Tertiary periods
CHAPTER VIII.
THE "FALL OF MAN" AND ANTHROPOLOGY.
The two antagonistic views regarding the life of man on the
earth
The theory of "the Fall" among ancient peoples
Inheritance of this view by the Christian Church
Appearance among the Greeks and Romans of the theory of a rise of
man
Its disappearance during the Middle Ages
Its development since the seventeenth century
The first blow at the doctrine of "the Fall" comes from geology
Influence of anthropology on the belief in this doctrine
The finding of human skulls in Quaternary deposits
Their significance
Results obtained from the comparative study of the remains of
human handiwork
Discovery of human remains in shell-heaps on the shores of the
Baltic Sea
In peat-beds
The lake-dwellers
Indications of the upward direction of man's development
Mr. Southall's attack on the theory of man's antiquity
An answer to it
Discovery of prehistoric human remains in Egypt
Hamard's attack on the new scientific conclusions
The survival of prehistoric implements in religious rites
Strength of the argument against the theory of "the Fall of Man"
CHAPTER IX.
THE "FALL OF MAN" AND ETHNOLOGY.
The beginnings of the science of Comparative Ethnology
Its testimony to the upward tendency of man from low beginning
Theological efforts to break its force--De Maistre and DeBonald
Whately's attempt
The attempt of the Duke of Argyll
Evidence of man's upward tendency derived from Comparative
Philology
From Comparative Literature and Folklore
From Comparative Ethnography
From Biology
CHAPTER X.
THE "FALL OF MAN" AND HISTORY.
Proof of progress given by the history of art
Proofs from general history
Development of civilization even under unfavourable circumstances
Advancement even through catastrophes and the decay of
civilizations
Progress not confined to man's material condition
Theological struggle against the new scientific view
Persecution of Prof. Winchell
Of Dr. Woodrow
Other interferences with freedom of teaching
The great harm thus done to religion
Rise of a better spirit
The service rendered to religion by Anthropology
CHAPTER XI.
FROM "THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR" TO METEOROLOGY.
I. Growth of a Theological Theory.
The beliefs of classical antiquity regarding storms, thunder, and
lightning
Development of a sacred science of meteorology by the fathers of
the Church
Theories of Cosmas Indicopleustes
Of Isidore
Of Seville
Of Bede
Of Rabanus Maurus
Rational views of Honorius of Autun
Orthodox theories of John of San Geminiano
Attempt of Albert the Great to reconcile the speculations of
Aristotle with the theological views
The monkish encyclopedists
Theories regarding the rainbow and the causes of storms
Meteorological phenomena attributed to the Almighty
II. Diabolical Agency in Storms.
Meteorological phenomena attributed to the devil--"the prince of
the power of the air"
Propagation of this belief by the medieval theologians
Its transmission to both Catholics and Protestants--Eck, Luther
The great work of Delrio
Guacci's Compendium
The employment of prayer against "the powers of the air"
Of exorcisms
Of fetiches and processions
Of consecrated church bells
III. The Agency of Witches.
The fearful results of the witch superstition
Its growth out of the doctrine of evil agency in atmospheric
phenomena
Archbishop Agobard's futile attempt to dispel it
Its sanction by the popes
Its support by confessions extracted by torture
Part taken in the persecution by Dominicans and Jesuits
Opponents of the witch theory--Pomponatius, Paracelsus, Agrippa
of Nettesheim
Jean Bodin's defence of the superstition
Fate of Cornelius Loos
Of Dietrich Flade
Efforts of Spee to stem the persecution
His posthumous influence
Upholders of the orthodox view--Bishop Binsfeld, Remigius
Vain protests of Wier
Persecution of Bekker for opposing the popular belief
Effect of the Reformation in deepening the superstition
The persecution in Great Britain and America
Development of a scientific view of the heavens
Final efforts to revive the old belief
IV. Franklin's Lightning-Rod.
Franklin's experiments with the kite
Their effect on the old belief
Efforts at compromise between the scientific and theological
theories
Successful use of the lightning-rod
Religious scruples against it in America
In England
In Austria
In Italy
Victory of the scientific theory
This victory exemplified in the case of the church of the
monastery of Lerins
In the case of Dr. Moorhouse
In the case of the Missouri droughts
CHAPTER XII.
FROM MAGIC TO CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
I. The Supremacy of Magic.
Primitive tendency to belief in magic
The Greek conception of natural laws
Influence of Plato and Aristotle on the growth of science
Effect of the establishment of Christianity on the development of
the physical sciences
The revival of thought in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
Albert the Great
Vincent of Beauvais
Thomas Aquinas
Roger Bacon's beginning of the experimental method brought to
nought
The belief that science is futile gives place to the belief that
it is dangerous
The two kinds of magic
Rarity of persecution for magic before the Christian era
The Christian theory of devils
Constantine's laws against magic
Increasing terror of magic and witchcraft
Papal enactments against them
Persistence of the belief in magic
Its effect on the development of science
Roger Bacon
Opposition of secular rulers to science
John Baptist Porta
The opposition to scientific societies in Italy
In England
The effort to turn all thought from science to religion
The development of mystic theology
Its harmful influence on science
Mixture of theological with scientific speculation
This shown in the case of Melanchthon
In that of Francis Bacon
Theological theory of gases
Growth of a scientific theory
Basil Valentine and his contributions to chemistry
Triumph of the scientific theory
II. The Triumph of Chemistry and Physics.
New epoch in chemistry begun by Boyle
Attitude of the mob toward science
Effect on science of the reaction following the French
Revolution: {?}
Development of chemistry since the middle of the nineteenth
century
Development of physics
Modern opposition to science in Catholic countries
Attack of scientific education in France
In England
In Prussia
Revolt against the subordination of education to science
Effect of the International Exhibition of ii {?} at London
Of the endowment of State colleges in America by the Morrill
Act of 1862
The results to religion
CHAPTER XIII.
FROM MIRACLES TO MEDICINE.
I. THE EARLY AND SACRED THEORIES OF DISEASE.
Naturalness of the idea of supernatural intervention in causing
and curing disease
Prevalence of this idea in ancient civilizations
Beginnings of a scientific theory of medicine
The twofold influence of Christianity on the healing art
II. GROWTH OF LEGENDS OF HEALING.--THE LIFE OF XAVIER AS A
TYPICAL EXAMPLE.
Growth of legends of miracles about the lives of great
benefactors of humanity
Sketch of Xavier's career
Absence of miraculous accounts in his writings and those of his
contemporaries
Direct evidence that Xavier wrought no miracles
Growth of legends of miracles as shown in the early biographies
of him
As shown in the canonization proceedings
Naturalness of these legends
III. THE MEDIAEVAL MIRACLES OF HEALING CHECK MEDICAL SCIENCE.
Character of the testimony regarding miracles
Connection of mediaeval with pagan miracles
Their basis of fact
Various kinds of miraculous cures
Atmosphere of supernaturalism thrown about all cures
Influence of this atmosphere on medical science
IV. THE ATTRIBUTION OF DISEASE TO SATANIC INFLUENCE.--"PASTORAL
MEDICINE" CHECKS SCIENTIFIC EFFORT.
Theological theory as to the cause of disease
Influence of self-interest on "pastoral medicine"
Development of fetichism at Cologne and elsewhere
Other developments of fetich cure
V. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO ANATOMICAL STUDIES.
Medieval belief in the unlawfulness of meddling with the bodies
of the dead
Dissection objected to on the ground that "the Church abhors the
shedding of blood"
The decree of Boniface VIII and its results
VI. NEW BEGINNINGS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.
Galen
Scanty development of medical science in the Church
Among Jews and Mohammedans
Promotion of medical science by various Christian laymen of the
Middle Ages
By rare men of science
By various ecclesiastics
VII. THEOLOGICAL DISCOURAGEMENT OF MEDICINE.
Opposition to seeking cure from disease by natural means
Requirement of ecclesiastical advice before undertaking medical
treatment
Charge of magic and Mohammedanism against men of science
Effect of ecclesiastical opposition to medicine
The doctrine of signatures
The doctrine of exorcism
Theological opposition to surgery
Development of miracle and fetich cures
Fashion in pious cures
Medicinal properties of sacred places
Theological argument in favour of miraculous cures
Prejudice against Jewish physicians
VIII. FETICH CURES UNDER PROTESTANTISM.--THE ROYAL TOUCH.
Luther's theory of disease
The royal touch
Cures wrought by Charles II
By James II
By William III
By Queen Anne
By Louis XIV
Universal acceptance of these miracles
IX. THE SCIENTIFIC STRUGGLE FOR ANATOMY.
Occasional encouragement of medical science in the Middle Ages
New impulse given by the revival of learning and the age of
discovery
Paracelsus and Mundinus
Vesalius, the founder of the modern science of anatomy.--His
career and fate
X. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO INOCULATION, VACCINATION, AND THE
USE OF ANAESTHETICS.
Theological opposition to inoculation in Europe
In America
Theological opposition to vaccination
Recent hostility to vaccination in England
In Canada, during the smallpox epidemic
Theological opposition to the use of cocaine
To the use of quinine
Theological opposition to the use of anesthetics
XI. FINAL BREAKING AWAY OF THE THEOLOGICAL THEORY IN MEDICINE.
Changes incorporated in the American Book of Common Prayer
Effect on the theological view of the growing knowledge of the
relation between imagination and medicine
Effect of the discoveries in hypnotism
In bacteriology
Relation between ascertained truth and the "ages of faith"
CHAPTER XIV.
FROM FETICH TO HYGIENE.
I. THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW OF EPIDEMICS AND SANITATION.
The recurrence of great pestilences
Their early ascription to the wrath or malice of unseen powers
Their real cause want of hygienic precaution
Theological apotheosis of filth
Sanction given to the sacred theory of pestilence by Pope Gregory
the Great
Modes of propitiating the higher powers
Modes of thwarting the powers of evil
Persecution of the Jews as Satan's emissaries
Persecution of witches as Satan's emissaries
Case of the Untori at Milan
New developments of fetichism.--The blood of St. Januarius at
Naples
Appearance of better methods in Italy.--In Spain
II. GRADUAL DECAY OF THEOLOGICAL VIEWS REGARDING SANITATION.
Comparative freedom of England from persecutions for
plague-bringing, in spite of her wretched sanitary condition
Aid sought mainly through church services
Effects of the great fire in London
The jail fever
The work of John Howard
Plagues in the American colonies
In France.--The great plague at Marseilles
Persistence of the old methods in Austria
In Scotland
III. THE TRIUMPH OF SANITARY SCIENCE.
Difficulty of reconciling the theological theory of pestilences
with accumulating facts
Curious approaches to a right theory
The law governing the relation of theology to disease
Recent victories of hygiene in all countries
In England.---Chadwick and his fellows
In France
IV. THE RELATION OF SANITARY SCIENCE TO RELIGION.
The process of sanitary science not at the cost of religion
Illustration from the policy of Napoleon III in France
Effect of proper sanitation on epidemics in the United States
Change in the attitude of the Church toward the cause and cure of
pestilence
CHAPTER XV.
FROM "DEMONIACAL POSSESSION" TO INSANITY.
I. THEOLOGICAL IDEAS OF LUNACY AND ITS TREATMENT.
The struggle for the scientific treatment of the insane
The primitive ascription of insanity to evil spirits
Better Greek and Roman theories--madness a disease
The Christian Church accepts the demoniacal theory of insanity
Yet for a time uses mild methods for the insane
Growth of the practice of punishing the indwelling demon
Two sources whence better things might have been hoped.--The
reasons of their futility
The growth of exorcism
Use of whipping and torture
The part of art and literature in making vivid to the common mind
the idea of diabolic activity
The effects of religious processions as a cure for mental disease
Exorcism of animals possessed of demons
Belief in the transformation of human beings into animals
The doctrine of demoniacal possession in the Reformed Church
II. BEGINNINGS OF A HEALTHFUL SCEPTICISM.
Rivalry between Catholics and Protestants in the casting out of
devils
Increased belief in witchcraft during the period following the
Reformation
Increase of insanity during the witch persecutions II {?}
Attitude of physicians toward witchcraft I
Religious hallucinations of the insane I
Theories as to the modes of diabolic entrance into the possessed
Influence of monastic life on the development of insanity
Protests against the theological view of insanity--Wier,
Montaigue Bekker
Last struggles of the old superstition
III. THE FINAL STRUGGLE AND VICTORY OF SCIENCE.--PINEL AND TUKE.
Influence of French philosophy on the belief in demoniacal
possession
Reactionary influence of John Wesley
Progress of scientific ideas in Prussia
In Austria
In America
In South Germany
General indifference toward the sufferings of madmen
The beginnings of a more humane treatment
Jean Baptiste Pinel
Improvement in the treatment of the insane in England.--William
Tuke
The place of Pinel and Tuke in history
CHAPTER XVI.
FROM DIABOLISM TO HYSTERIA.
I. THE EPIDEMICS OF "POSSESSION."
Survival of the belief in diabolic activity as the cause of such
epidemics
Epidemics of hysteria in classical times
In the Middle Ages
The dancing mania
Inability of science during the fifteenth century to cope with
such diseases
Cases of possession brought within the scope of medical research
during the sixteenth century
Dying-out of this form of mental disease in northern Europe
In Italy
Epidemics of hysteria in the convents
The case of Martha Brossier
Revival in France of belief in diabolic influence
The Ursulines of Loudun and Urbain Grandier
Possession among the Huguenots
In New England.--The Salem witch persecution
At Paris.--Alleged miracles at the grave of Archdeacon Paris
In Germany.--Case of Maria Renata Sanger
More recent outbreaks
II. BEGINNINGS OF HELPFUL SCEPTICISM.
Outbreaks of hysteria in factories and hospitals
In places of religious excitement
The case at Morzine
Similar cases among Protestants and in Africa
III. THEOLOGICAL "RESTATEMENTS."--FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE
SCIENTIFIC VIEW AND METHODS.
Successful dealings of medical science with mental diseases
Attempts to give a scientific turn to the theory of diabolic
agency in disease
Last great demonstration of the old belief in England
Final triumph of science in the latter half of the present
century
Last echoes of the old belief
CHAPTER XVII.
FROM BABEL TO COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY.
I. THE SACRED THEORY IN ITS FIRST FORM.
Difference of the history of Comparative Philology from that of
other sciences as regards the attitude of theologians
Curiosity of early man regarding the origin, the primitive form,
and the diversity of language
The Hebrew answer to these questions
The legend of the Tower of Babel
The real reason for the building of towers by the Chaldeans and
the causes of their ruin
Other legends of a confusion of tongues
Influence upon Christendom of the Hebrew legends
Lucretius's theory of the origin of language
The teachings of the Church fathers on this subject
The controversy as to the divine origin of the Hebrew vowel
points
Attitude of the reformers toward this question
Of Catholic scholars.--Marini Capellus and his adversaries
The treatise of Danzius
II. THE SACRED THEORY OF LANGUAGE IN ITS SECOND FORM.
Theological theory that Hebrew was the primitive tongue, divinely
revealed
This theory supported by all Christian scholars until the
beginning of the eighteenth century
Dissent of Prideaux and Cotton Mather
Apparent strength of the sacred theory of language
III. BREAKING DOWN OF THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW.
Reason for the Church's ready acceptance of the conclusions of
comparative philology
Beginnings of a scientific theory of language
Hottinger
Leibnitz
The collections of Catharine the Great, of Hervas, and of Adelung
Chaotic period in philology between Leibnitz and the beginning of
the study of Sanskrit
Illustration from the successive editions of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica
IV. TRIUMPH OF THE NEW SCIENCE.
Effect of the discovery of Sanskrit on the old theory
Attempts to discredit the new learning
General acceptance of the new theory
Destruction of the belief that all created things were first
named by Adam
Of the belief in the divine origin of letters
Attempts in England to support the old theory of language
Progress of philological science in France
In Germany
In Great Britain
Recent absurd attempts to prove Hebrew the primitive tongue
V. SUMMARY.
Gradual disappearance of the old theories regarding the origin of
speech and writing
Full acceptance of the new theories by all Christian scholars
The result to religion, and to the Bible
CHAPTER XVIII.
FROM THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS TO COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY,
I. THE GROWTH OF EXPLANATORY TRANSFORMATION MYTHS.
Growth of myths to account for remarkable appearances in
Nature--mountains, rocks, curiously marked stones, fossils,
products of volcanic action
Myths of the transformation of living beings into natural objects
Development of the science of Comparative Mythology
II. MEDIAEVAL GROWTH OF THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS.
Description of the Dead Sea
Impression made by its peculiar features on the early dwellers in
Palestine
Reasons for selecting the Dead Sea myths for study
Naturalness of the growth of legend regarding the salt region of
Usdum
Universal belief in these legends
Concurrent testimony of early and mediaeval writers, Jewish and
Christian, respecting the existence of Lot's wife as a "pillar of
salt," and of the other wonders of the Dead Sea
Discrepancies in the various accounts and theological
explanations of them
Theological arguments respecting the statue of Lot's wife
Growth of the legend in the sixteenth century
III. POST-REFORMATION CULMINATION OF THE DEAD SEA
LEGENDS.--BEGINNINGS OF A HEALTHFUL SCEPTICISM.
Popularization of the older legends at the Reformation
Growth of new myths among scholars
Signs of scepticism among travellers near the end of the
sixteenth century
Effort of Quaresmio to check this tendency
Of Eugene Roger
Of Wedelius
Influence of these teachings
Renewed scepticism--the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Efforts of Briemle and Masius in support of the old myths
Their influence
The travels of Mariti and of Volney
Influence of scientific thought on the Dead Sea legends during
the eighteenth century
Reactionary efforts of Chateaubriand
Investigations of the naturalist Seetzen
Of Dr. Robinson
The expedition of Lieutenant Lynch
The investigations of De Saulcy
Of the Duc de Luynes.--Lartet's report
Summary of the investigations of the nineteenth
century.--Ritter's verdict
IV. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.--TRIUMPH OF THE
SCIENTIFIC VIEW.
Attempts to reconcile scientific facts with the Dead Sea legends
Van de Velde's investigations of the Dead Sea region
Canon Tristram's
Mgr. Mislin's protests against the growing rationalism
The work of Schaff and Osborn
Acceptance of the scientific view by leaders in the Church
Dr. Geikie's ascription of the myths to the Arabs
Mgr. Haussmann de Wandelburg and his rejection of the scientific
view
Service of theologians to religion in accepting the conclusions
of silence in this field
CHAPTER XIX.
FROM LEVITICUS TO POLITICAL ECONOMY
I. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HOSTILITY TO LOANS AT INTEREST.
Universal belief in the sin of loaning money at interest
The taking of interest among the Greeks and Romans
Opposition of leaders of thought, especially Aristotle
Condemnation of the practice by the Old and New Testaments
By the Church fathers
In ecclesiastical and secular legislation
Exception sometimes made in behalf of the Jews
Hostility of the pulpit
Of the canon law
Evil results of the prohibition of loans at interest
Efforts to induce the Church to change her position
Theological evasions of the rule
Attitude of the Reformers toward the taking of interest
Struggle in England for recognition of the right to accept
interest
Invention of a distinction between usury and interest
II. RETREAT OF THE CHURCH, PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC.
Sir Robert Filmer's attack on the old doctrine
Retreat of the Protestant Church in Holland
In Germany and America
Difficulties in the way of compromise in the Catholic Church
Failure of such attempts in France
Theoretical condemnation of usury in Italy
Disregard of all restrictions in practice
Attempts of Escobar and Liguori to reconcile the taking of
interest with the teachings of the Church
Montesquieu's attack on the old theory
Encyclical of Benedict XIV permitting the taking of interest
Similar decision of the Inquisition at Rome
Final retreat of the Catholic Church
Curious dealings of theology with public economy in other fields
CHAPTER XX.
FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM.
I. THE OLDER INTERPRETATION.
Character of the great sacred
books of the world
General laws governing the development and influence of sacred
literature.--The law of its origin
Legends concerning the Septuagint
The law of wills and causes
The law of inerrancy
Hostility to the revision of King James's translation of the
Bible
The law of unity
Working of these laws seen in the great rabbinical schools
The law of allegorical interpretation
Philo
Judaeus
Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria
Occult significance of numbers
Origen
Hilary of Poitiers and Jerome
Augustine
Gregory the Great
Vain attempts to check the flood of allegorical interpretations
Bede.--Savonarola
Methods of modern criticism for the first time employed by
Lorenzo Valla
Erasmus
Influence of the Reformation on the belief in the infallibility
of the sacred books.--Luther and Melanchthon
Development of scholasticism in the Reformed Church
Catholic belief in the inspiration of the Vulgate
Opposition in Russia to the revision of the Slavonic Scriptures
Sir Isaac Newton as a commentator
Scriptural interpretation at the beginning of the eighteenth
century
II. BEGINNINGS OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION.
Theological beliefs regarding the Pentateuch
The book of Genesis
Doubt thrown on the sacred theory by Aben Ezra
By Carlstadt and Maes
Influence of the discovery that the Isidorian
Decretals were forgeries
That the writings ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite were
serious
Hobbes and La Peyrere
Spinoza
Progress of biblical criticism in France.--Richard Simon
LeClerc
Bishop Lowth
Astruc
Eichhorn's application of the "higher criticism" to biblical
research
Isenbiehl
Herder
Alexander Geddes
Opposition to the higher criticism in Germany
Hupfeld
Vatke and Reuss
Kuenen
Wellhausen
III. THE CONTINUED GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION.
Progress of the higher criticism in Germany and Holland
Opposition to it in England
At the University of Oxford
Pusey
Bentley
Wolf
Niebuhr and Arnold
Milman
Thirlwall and Grote
The publication of Essays and Reviews, and the storm raised by
book
IV. THE CLOSING STRUGGLE.
Colenso's work on the Pentateuch
The persecution of him
Bishop Wilberforce's part in it
Dean Stanley's
Bishop Thirlwall's
Results of Colenso's work
Sanday's Bampton Lectures
Keble College and Lux
Mundi
Progress of biblical criticism among the dissenters
In France.--Renan
In the Roman Catholic Church
The encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII
In America.--Theodore Parker
Apparent strength of the old theory of inspiration
Real strength of the new movement
V. VICTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY METHODS.
Confirmation of the conclusions of the higher criticism by
Assyriology and Egyptology
Light thrown upon Hebrew religion by the translation of the
sacred books of the East
The influence of Persian thought.--The work of the Rev. Dr. Mills
The influence of Indian thought.--Light thrown by the study of
Brahmanism and Buddhism
The work of Fathers Huc and Gabet
Discovery that Buddha himself had been canonized as a Christian
saint
Similarity between the ideas and legends of Buddhism and those of
Christianity
The application of the higher criticism to the New Testament
The English "Revised Version" of Studies on the formation of the
canon of Scripture
Recognition of the laws governing its development
Change in the spirit of the controversy over the higher criticism
VI. RECONSTRUCTIVE FORCE OF SCIENTIFIC CRITICISM.
Development of a scientific atmosphere during the last three
centuries
Action of modern science in reconstruction of religious truth
Change wrought by it in the conception of a sacred literature
Of the Divine Power.--Of man.---Of the world at large
Of our Bible
CHAPTER I. FROM CREATION TO EVOLUTION.
I. THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE.
Among those masses of cathedral sculpture which preserve so much of
medieval theology, one frequently recurring group is noteworthy for
its presentment of a time-honoured doctrine regarding the origin of the
universe.
The Almighty, in human form, sits benignly, making the sun, moon, and
stars, and hanging them from the solid firmament which supports the
"heaven above" and overarches the "earth beneath."
The furrows of thought on the Creator's brow show that in this work he
is obliged to contrive; the knotted muscles upon his arms show that he
is obliged to toil; naturally, then, the sculptors and painters of
the medieval and early modern period frequently represented him as the
writers whose conceptions they embodied had done--as, on the seventh
day, weary after thought and toil, enjoying well-earned repose and the
plaudits of the hosts of heaven.
In these thought-fossils of the cathedrals, and in other revelations of
the same idea through sculpture, painting, glass-staining, mosaic work,
and engraving, during the Middle Ages and the two centuries following,
culminated a belief which had been developed through thousands of years,
and which has determined the world's thought until our own time.
Its beginnings lie far back in human history; we find them among the
early records of nearly all the great civilizations, and they hold a
most prominent place in the various sacred books of the world. In nearly
all of them is revealed the conception of a Creator of whom man is an
imperfect image, and who literally and directly created the visible
universe with his hands and fingers.
Among these theories, of especial interest to us are those which
controlled theological thought in Chaldea. The Assyrian inscriptions
which have been recently recovered and given to the English-speaking
peoples by Layard, George Smith, Sayce, and others, show that in the
ancient religions of Chaldea and Babylonia there was elaborated a
narrative of the creation which, in its most important features, must
have been the source of that in our own sacred books. It has now become
perfectly clear that from the same sources which inspired the accounts
of the creation of the universe among the Chaldeo-Babylonian, the
Assyrian, the Phoenician, and other ancient civilizations came the ideas
which hold so prominent a place in the sacred books of the Hebrews. In
the two accounts imperfectly fused together in Genesis, and also in
the account of which we have indications in the book of Job and in the
Proverbs, there, is presented, often with the greatest sublimity,
the same early conception of the Creator and of the creation--the
conception, so natural in the childhood of civilization, of a Creator
who is an enlarged human being working literally with his own hands,
and of a creation which is "the work of his fingers." To supplement this
view there was developed the belief in this Creator as one who, having
... "from his ample palm Launched forth the rolling planets into space."
sits on high, enthroned "upon the circle of the heavens," perpetually
controlling and directing them.
From this idea of creation was evolved in time a somewhat nobler view.
Ancient thinkers, and especially, as is now found, in Egypt, suggested
that the main agency in creation was not the hands and fingers of the
Creator, but his VOICE. Hence was mingled with the earlier, cruder
belief regarding the origin of the earth and heavenly bodies by
the Almighty the more impressive idea that "he spake and they were
made"--that they were brought into existence by his WORD.(1)
(1) Among the many mediaeval representations of the creation of the
universe, I especially recall from personal observation those sculptured
above the portals of the cathedrals of Freiburg and Upsala, the
paintings on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, and most striking of
all, the mosaics of the Cathedral of Monreale and those in the Capella
Palatina at Palermo. Among peculiarities showing the simplicity of the
earlier conception the representation of the response of the Almighty
on the seventh day is very striking. He is shown as seated in almost the
exact attitude of the "Weary Mercury" of classic sculpture--bent, and
with a very marked expression of fatigue upon his countenance and in the
whole disposition of his body.
The Monreale mosaics are pictured in the great work of Gravina, and in
the Pisa frescoes in Didron's Iconographie, Paris, 1843, p. 598. For
an exact statement of the resemblances which have settled the question
among the most eminent scholars in favour of the derivation of the
Hebrew cosmogony from that of Assyria, see Jensen, Die Kosmologie
der Babylonier, Strassburg, 1890, pp. 304,306; also Franz Lukas, Die
Grundbegriffe in den Kosmographien der alten Volker, Leipsic, 1893,
pp. 35-46; also George Smith's Chaldean Genesis, especially the German
translation with additions by Delitzsch, Leipsic, 1876, and Schrader,
Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, Giessen, 1883, pp. 1-54,
etc. See also Renan, Histoire du peuple d'Israel, vol. i, chap i,
L'antique influence babylonienne. For Egyptian views regarding creation,
and especially for the transition from the idea of creation by the hands
and fingers of the Creator to creation by his VOICE and his "word," see
Maspero and Sayce, The Dawn of Civilization, pp. 145-146.
Among the early fathers of the Church this general view of creation
became fundamental; they impressed upon Christendom more and more
strongly the belief that the universe was created in a perfectly literal
sense by the hands or voice of God. Here and there sundry theologians of
larger mind attempted to give a more spiritual view regarding some parts
of the creative work, and of these were St. Gregory of Nyssa and St.
Augustine. Ready as they were to accept the literal text of Scripture,
they revolted against the conception of an actual creation of the
universe by the hands and fingers of a Supreme Being, and in this
they were followed by Bede and a few others; but the more material
conceptions prevailed, and we find these taking shape not only in the
sculptures and mosaics and stained glass of cathedrals, and in the
illuminations of missals and psalters, but later, at the close of the
Middle Ages, in the pictured Bibles and in general literature.
Into the Anglo-Saxon mind this ancient material conception of the
creation was riveted by two poets whose works appealed especially to the
deeper religious feelings. In the seventh century Caedmon paraphrased
the account given in Genesis, bringing out this material conception in
the most literal form; and a thousand years later Milton developed out
of the various statements in the Old Testament, mingled with a theology
regarding "the creative Word" which had been drawn from the New, his
description of the creation by the second person in the Trinity, than
which nothing could be more literal and material:
"He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe and all created things.
One foot he centred, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, 'Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds:
This be thy just circumference, O world!'"(2)
(2) For Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and the general subject of the
development of an evolution theory among the Greeks, see the excellent
work by Dr. Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin, pp.33 and following; for
Caedmon, see any edition--I have used Bouterwek's, Gutersloh, 1854; for
Milton, see Paradise Lost, book vii, lines 225-231.
So much for the orthodox view of the MANNER of creation.
The next point developed in this theologic evolution had reference to
the MATTER of which the universe was made, and it was decided by an
overwhelming majority that no material substance existed before the
creation of the material universe--that "God created everything out of
nothing." Some venturesome thinkers, basing their reasoning upon the
first verses of Genesis, hinted at a different view--namely, that the
mass, "without form and void," existed before the universe; but this
doctrine was soon swept out of sight. The vast majority of the fathers
were explicit on this point. Tertullian especially was very severe
against those who took any other view than that generally accepted as
orthodox: he declared that, if there had been any pre-existing matter
out of which the world was formed, Scripture would have mentioned it;
that by not mentioning it God has given us a clear proof that there
was no such thing; and, after a manner not unknown in other theological
controversies, he threatens Hermogenes, who takes the opposite view,
with the woe which impends on all who add to or take away from the
written word.
St. Augustine, who showed signs of a belief in a pre-existence of
matter, made his peace with the prevailing belief by the simple
reasoning that, "although the world has been made of some material, that
very same material must have been made out of nothing."
In the wake of these great men the universal Church steadily followed.
The Fourth Lateran Council declared that God created everything out
of nothing; and at the present hour the vast majority of the
faithful--whether Catholic or Protestant--are taught the same doctrine;
on this point the syllabus of Pius IX and the Westminster Catechism
fully agree.(3)
(3) For Tertullian, see Tertullian against Hermogenes, chaps. xx and
xxii; for St. Augustine regarding "creation from nothing," see the De
Genesi contra Manichaeos, lib, i, cap. vi; for St. Ambrose, see the
Hexameron, lib, i, cap iv; for the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council,
and the view received in the Church to-day, see the article Creation in
Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary.
Having thus disposed of the manner and matter of creation, the next
subject taken up by theologians was the TIME required for the great
work.
Here came a difficulty. The first of the two accounts given in Genesis
extended the creative operation through six days, each of an evening
and a morning, with much explicit detail regarding the progress made in
each. But the second account spoke of "THE DAY" in which "the Lord God
made the earth and the heavens." The explicitness of the first account
and its naturalness to the minds of the great mass of early theologians
gave it at first a decided advantage; but Jewish thinkers, like Philo,
and Christian thinkers, like Origen, forming higher conceptions of
the Creator and his work, were not content with this, and by them was
launched upon the troubled sea of Christian theology the idea that the
creation was instantaneous, this idea being strengthened not only by the
second of the Genesis legends, but by the great text, "He spake, and
it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast"--or, as it appears in
the Vulgate and in most translations, "He spake, and they were made; he
commanded, and they were created."
As a result, it began to be held that the safe and proper course was to
believe literally BOTH statements; that in some mysterious manner God
created the universe in six days, and yet brought it all into existence
in a moment. In spite of the outcries of sundry great theologians,
like Ephrem Syrus, that the universe was created in exactly six days of
twenty-four hours each, this compromise was promoted by St. Athanasius
and St. Basil in the East, and by St. Augustine and St. Hilary in the
West.
Serious difficulties were found in reconciling these two views, which
to the natural mind seem absolutely contradictory; but by ingenious
manipulation of texts, by dexterous play upon phrases, and by the
abundant use of metaphysics to dissolve away facts, a reconciliation
was effected, and men came at least to believe that they believed in
a creation of the universe instantaneous and at the same time extended
through six days.(4)
(4) For Origen, see his Contra Celsum, cap xxxvi, xxxvii; also his
De Principibus, cap. v; for St. Augustine, see his De Genesi conta
Manichaeos and De Genesi ad Litteram, passim; for Athanasius, see his
Discourses against the Arians, ii, 48,49.
Some of the efforts to reconcile these two accounts were so fruitful as
to deserve especial record. The fathers, Eastern and Western, developed
out of the double account in Genesis, and the indications in the Psalms,
the Proverbs, and the book of Job, a vast mass of sacred science bearing
upon this point. As regards the whole work of creation, stress was laid
upon certain occult powers in numerals. Philo Judaeus, while believing
in an instantaneous creation, had also declared that the world was
created in six days because "of all numbers six is the most productive";
he had explained the creation of the heavenly bodies on the fourth day
by "the harmony of the number four"; of the animals on the fifth day
by the five senses; of man on the sixth day by the same virtues in the
number six which had caused it to be set as a limit to the creative
work; and, greatest of all, the rest on the seventh day by the vast mass
of mysterious virtues in the number seven.
St. Jerome held that the reason why God did not pronounce the work of
the second day "good" is to be found in the fact that there is something
essentially evil in the number two, and this was echoed centuries
afterward, afar off in Britain, by Bede.
St. Augustine brought this view to bear upon the Church in the following
statement: "There are three classes of numbers--the more than perfect,
the perfect, and the less than perfect, according as the sum of them
is greater than, equal to, or less than the original number. Six is the
first perfect number: wherefore we must not say that six is a perfect
number because God finished all his works in six days, but that God
finished all his works in six days because six is a perfect number."
Reasoning of this sort echoed along through the mediaeval Church until
a year after the discovery of America, when the Nuremberg Chronicle
re-echoed it as follows: "The creation of things is explained by the
number six, the parts of which, one, two, and three, assume the form of
a triangle."
This view of the creation of the universe as instantaneous and also as
in six days, each made up of an evening and a morning, became virtually
universal. Peter Lombard and Hugo of St. Victor, authorities of vast
weight, gave it their sanction in the twelfth century, and impressed it
for ages upon the mind of the Church.
Both these lines of speculation--as to the creation of everything out
of nothing, and the reconciling of the instantaneous creation of the
universe with its creation in six days--were still further developed by
other great thinkers of the Middle Ages.
St. Hilary of Poictiers reconciled the two conceptions as follows: "For,
although according to Moses there is an appearance of regular order
in the fixing of the firmament, the laying bare of the dry land, the
gathering together of the waters, the formation of the heavenly bodies,
and the arising of living things from land and water, yet the creation
of the heavens, earth, and other elements is seen to be the work of a
single moment."
St. Thomas Aquinas drew from St. Augustine a subtle distinction which
for ages eased the difficulties in the case: he taught in effect that
God created the substance of things in a moment, but gave to the work of
separating, shaping, and adorning this creation, six days.(5)
(5) For Philo Judaeus, see his Creation of the World, chap. iii; for
St. Augustine on the powers of numbers in creation, see his De Genesi ad
Litteram iv, chap. ii; for Peter Lombard, see the Sententiae, lib. ii,
dist. xv, 5; and for Hugo of St. Victor, see De Sacrementis, lib i, pars
i; also, Annotat, Elucidat in Pentateuchum, cap. v, vi, vii; for St.
Hilary, see De Trinitate, lib. xii; for St. Thomas Aquinas, see his
Summa Theologica, quest lxxxiv, arts. i and ii; the passage in the
Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493, is in fol. iii; for Vousset, see his Discours
sur l'Histoire Universelle; for the sacredness of the number seven among
the Babylonians, see especially Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das
Alte Testament, pp. 21,22; also George Smith et al.; for general ideas
on the occult powers of various numbers, especially the number seven,
and the influence of these ideas on theology and science, see my chapter
on astronomy. As to medieaval ideas on the same subject, see Detzel,
Christliche Ikonographie, Frieburg, 1894, pp. 44 and following.
The early reformers accepted and developed the same view, and Luther
especially showed himself equal to the occasion. With his usual boldness
he declared, first, that Moses "spoke properly and plainly, and neither
allegorically nor figuratively," and that therefore "the world with all
creatures was created in six days." And he then goes on to show how, by
a great miracle, the whole creation was also instantaneous.
Melanchthon also insisted that the universe was created out of nothing
and in a mysterious way, both in an instant and in six days, citing the
text: "He spake, and they were made."
Calvin opposed the idea of an instantaneous creation, and laid especial
stress on the creation in six days: having called attention to the
fact that the biblical chronology shows the world to be not quite
six thousand years old and that it is now near its end, he says that
"creation was extended through six days that it might not be tedious for
us to occupy the whole of life in the consideration of it."
Peter Martyr clinched the matter by declaring: "So important is it to
comprehend the work of creation that we see the creed of the Church take
this as its starting point. Were this article taken away there would be
no original sin, the promise of Christ would become void, and all the
vital force of our religion would be destroyed." The Westminster divines
in drawing up their Confession of Faith specially laid it down as
necessary to believe that all things visible and invisible were created
not only out of nothing but in exactly six days.
Nor were the Roman divines less strenuous than the Protestant reformers
regarding the necessity of holding closely to the so-called Mosaic
account of creation. As late as the middle of the eighteenth century,
when Buffon attempted to state simple geological truths, the theological
faculty of the Sorbonne forced him to make and to publish a most
ignominious recantation which ended with these words: "I abandon
everything in my book respecting the formation of the earth, and
generally all which may be contrary to the narrative of Moses."
Theologians, having thus settled the manner of the creation, the matter
used in it, and the time required for it, now exerted themselves to fix
its DATE.
The long series of efforts by the greatest minds in the Church, from
Eusebius to Archbishop Usher, to settle this point are presented in
another chapter. Suffice it here that the general conclusion arrived
at by an overwhelming majority of the most competent students of the
biblical accounts was that the date of creation was, in round numbers,
four thousand years before our era; and in the seventeenth century, in
his great work, Dr. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University
of Cambridge, and one of the most eminent Hebrew scholars of his time,
declared, as the result of his most profound and exhaustive study of
the Scriptures, that "heaven and earth, centre and circumference, were
created all together, in the same instant, and clouds full of water,"
and that "this work took place and man was created by the Trinity on
October 23, 4004 B. C., at nine o'clock in the morning."
Here was, indeed, a triumph of Lactantius's method, the result of
hundreds of years of biblical study and theological thought since Bede
in the eighth century, and Vincent of Beauvais in the thirteenth, had
declared that creation must have taken place in the spring. Yet, alas!
within two centuries after Lightfoot's great biblical demonstration as
to the exact hour of creation, it was discovered that at that hour
an exceedingly cultivated people, enjoying all the fruits of a highly
developed civilization, had long been swarming in the great cities of
Egypt, and that other nations hardly less advanced had at that time
reached a high development in Asia.(6)
(6) For Luther, see his Commentary on Genesis, 1545, introduction,
and his comments on chap. i, verse 12; the quotations from Luther's
commentary are taken mainly from the translation by Henry Cole, D.D.,
Edinburgh, 1858; for Melanchthon, see Loci Theologici, in Melanchthon,
Opera, ed. Bretschneider, vol. xxi, pp. 269, 270, also pp. 637, 638--in
quoting the text (Ps. xxiii, 9) I have used, as does Melanchthon
himself, the form of the Vulgate; for the citations from Calvin, see his
Commentary on Genesis (Opera omnia, Amsterdam, 1671, tom. i, cap. ii, p.
8); also in the Institutes, Allen's translation, London, 1838, vol.
i, chap. xv, pp. 126,127; for the Peter Martyr, see his Commentary
on Genesis, cited by Zockler, vol. i, p. 690; for articles in the
Westminster Confession of Faith, see chap. iv; for Buffon's recantation,
see Lyell, Principles of Geology, chap iii, p. 57. For Lightfoot's
declaration, see his works, edited by Pitman, London, 1822.
But, strange as it may seem, even after theologians had thus settled the
manner of creation, the matter employed in it, the time required for it,
and the exact date of it, there remained virtually unsettled the
first and greatest question of all; and this was nothing less than the
question, WHO actually created the universe?
Various theories more or less nebulous, but all centred in texts of
Scripture, had swept through the mind of the Church. By some theologians
it was held virtually that the actual creative agent was the third
person of the Trinity, who, in the opening words of our sublime creation
poem, "moved upon the face of the waters." By others it was held that
the actual Creator was the second person of the Trinity, in behalf of
whose agency many texts were cited from the New Testament. Others held
that the actual Creator was the first person, and this view was embodied
in the two great formulas known as the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds,
which explicitly assigned the work to "God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth." Others, finding a deep meaning in the words "Let US
make," ascribed in Genesis to the Creator, held that the entire Trinity
directly created all things; and still others, by curious metaphysical
processes, seemed to arrive at the idea that peculiar combinations of
two persons of the Trinity achieved the creation.
In all this there would seem to be considerable courage in view of the
fearful condemnations launched in the Athanasian Creed against all who
should "confound the persons" or "divide the substance of the Trinity."
These various stages in the evolution of scholastic theology were
also embodied in sacred art, and especially in cathedral sculpture, in
glass-staining, in mosaic working, and in missal painting.
The creative Being is thus represented sometimes as the third person of
the Trinity, in the form of a dove brooding over chaos; sometimes as the
second person, and therefore a youth; sometimes as the first person,
and therefore fatherly and venerable; sometimes as the first and second
persons, one being venerable and the other youthful; and sometimes
as three persons, one venerable and one youthful, both wearing papal
crowns, and each holding in his lips a tip of the wing of the dove,
which thus seems to proceed from both and to be suspended between them.
Nor was this the most complete development of the medieval idea. The
Creator was sometimes represented with a single body, but with three
faces, thus showing that Christian belief had in some pious minds gone
through substantially the same cycle which an earlier form of belief had
made ages before in India, when the Supreme Being was represented with
one body but with the three faces of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.
But at the beginning of the modern period the older view in its
primitive Jewish form was impressed upon Christians by the most mighty
genius in art the world has known; for in 1512, after four years of
Titanic labour, Michael Angelo uncovered his frescoes within the vault
of the Sistine Chapel.
They had been executed by the command and under the sanction of the
ruling Pope, Julius II, to represent the conception of Christian
theology then dominant, and they remain to-day in all their majesty
to show the highest point ever attained by the older thought upon the
origin of the visible universe.
In the midst of the expanse of heaven the Almighty Father--the first
person of the Trinity--in human form, august and venerable, attended by
angels and upborne by mighty winds, sweeps over the abyss, and, moving
through successive compartments of the great vault, accomplishes the
work of the creative days. With a simple gesture he divides the light
from the darkness, rears on high the solid firmament, gathers together
beneath it the seas, or summons into existence the sun, moon, and
planets, and sets them circling about the earth.
In this sublime work culminated the thought of thousands of years; the
strongest minds accepted it or pretended to accept it, and nearly two
centuries later this conception, in accordance with the first of the
two accounts given in Genesis, was especially enforced by Bossuet,
and received a new lease of life in the Church, both Catholic and
Protestant.(7)
(7) For strange representations of the Creator and of the creation by
one, two, or three persons of the Trinity, see Didron, Iconographie
Chretienne, pp. 35, 178, 224, 483, 567-580, and elsewhere; also Detzel
as already cited. The most naive of all survivals of the mediaeval idea
of creation which the present writer has ever seen was exhibited in
1894 on the banner of one of the guilds at the celebration of the
four-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Munich Cathedral.
Jesus of Nazareth, as a beautiful boy and with a nimbus encircling his
head, was shown turning and shaping the globe on a lathe, which he keeps
in motion with his foot. The emblems of the Passion are about him,
God the Father looking approvingly upon him from a cloud, and the dove
hovering between the two. The date upon the banner was 1727.
But to these discussions was added yet another, which, beginning in the
early days of the Church, was handed down the ages until it had died out
among the theologians of our own time.
In the first of the biblical accounts light is created and the
distinction between day and night thereby made on the first day,
while the sun and moon are not created until the fourth day. Masses of
profound theological and pseudo-scientific reasoning have been developed
to account for this--masses so great that for ages they have obscured
the simple fact that the original text is a precious revelation to us of
one of the most ancient of recorded beliefs--the belief that light and
darkness are entities independent of the heavenly bodies, and that the
sun, moon, and stars exist not merely to increase light but to "divide
the day from the night, to be for signs and for seasons, and for days
and for years," and "to rule the day and the night."
Of this belief we find survivals among the early fathers, and especially
in St. Ambrose. In his work on creation he tells us: "We must remember
that the light of day is one thing and the light of the sun, moon,
and stars another--the sun by his rays appearing to add lustre to
the daylight. For before sunrise the day dawns, but is not in full
refulgence, for the sun adds still further to its splendour." This
idea became one of the "treasures of sacred knowledge committed to the
Church," and was faithfully received by the Middle Ages. The medieval
mysteries and miracle plays give curious evidences of this: In a
performance of the creation, when God separates light from darkness, the
stage direction is, "Now a painted cloth is to be exhibited, one half
black and the other half white." It was also given more permanent form.
In the mosaics of San Marco at Venice, in the frescoes of the Baptistery
at Florence and of the Church of St. Francis at Assisi, and in the altar
carving at Salerno, we find a striking realization of it--the Creator
placing in the heavens two disks or living figures of equal size, each
suitably coloured or inscribed to show that one represents light and the
other darkness. This conception was without doubt that of the person or
persons who compiled from the Chaldean and other earlier statements the
accounts of the creation in the first of our sacred books.(8)
(8) For scriptural indications of the independent existence of light and
darkness, compare with the first verses of the chapter of Genesis such
passages as Job xxxviii, 19,24; for the general prevalence of this early
view, see Lukas, Kosmogonie, pp. 31, 33, 41, 74, and passim; for the
view of St. Ambrose regarding the creation of light and of the sun, see
his Hexameron, lib. 4, cap. iii; for an excellent general statement,
see Huxley, Mr. Gladstone and Genesis, in the Nineteenth Century, 1886,
reprinted in his Essays on Controverted Questions, London, 1892,
note, pp. 126 et seq.; for the acceptance in the miracle plays of the
scriptural idea of light and darkness as independent creations, see
Wright, Essays on Archeological Subjects, vol. ii, p.178; for an
account, with illustrations, of the mosaics, etc., representing this
idea, see Tikkanen, Die Genesis-mosaiken von San Marco, Helsingfors,
1889, p. 14 and 16 of the text and Plates I and II. Very naively the
Salerno carver, not wishing to colour the ivory which he wrought, has
inscribed on one disk the word "LUX" and on the other "NOX." See also
Didron, Iconographie, p. 482.
Thus, down to a period almost within living memory, it was held,
virtually "always, everywhere, and by all," that the universe, as we now
see it, was created literally and directly by the voice or hands of the
Almighty, or by both--out of nothing--in an instant or in six days, or
in both--about four thousand years before the Christian era--and for the
convenience of the dwellers upon the earth, which was at the base and
foundation of the whole structure.
But there had been implanted along through the ages germs of another
growth in human thinking, some of them even as early as the
Babylonian period. In the Assyrian inscriptions we find recorded the
Chaldeo-Babylonian idea of AN EVOLUTION of the universe out of the
primeval flood or "great deep," and of the animal creation out of the
earth and sea. This idea, recast, partially at least, into monotheistic
form, passed naturally into the sacred books of the neighbours and
pupils of the Chaldeans--the Hebrews; but its growth in Christendom
afterward was checked, as we shall hereafter find, by the more powerful
influence of other inherited statements which appealed more intelligibly
to the mind of the Church.
Striking, also, was the effect of this idea as rewrought by the early
Ionian philosophers, to whom it was probably transmitted from the
Chaldeans through the Phoenicians. In the minds of Ionians like
Anaximander and Anaximenes it was most clearly developed: the first of
these conceiving of the visible universe as the result of processes of
evolution, and the latter pressing further the same mode of reasoning,
and dwelling on agencies in cosmic development recognised in modern
science.
This general idea of evolution in Nature thus took strong hold upon
Greek thought and was developed in many ways, some ingenious, some
perverse. Plato, indeed, withstood it; but Aristotle sometimes developed
it in a manner which reminds us of modern views.
Among the Romans Lucretius caught much from it, extending the
evolutionary process virtually to all things.
In the early Church, as we have seen, the idea of a creation direct,
material, and by means like those used by man, was all-powerful for the
exclusion of conceptions based on evolution. From the more simple and
crude of the views of creation given in the Babylonian legends, and
thence incorporated into Genesis, rose the stream of orthodox thought
on the subject, which grew into a flood and swept on through the Middle
Ages and into modern times. Yet here and there in the midst of this
flood were high grounds of thought held by strong men. Scotus Erigena
and Duns Scotus, among the schoolmen, bewildered though they were,
had caught some rays of this ancient light, and passed on to their
successors, in modified form, doctrines of an evolutionary process in
the universe.
In the latter half of the sixteenth century these evolutionary theories
seemed to take more definite form in the mind of Giordano Bruno, who
evidently divined the fundamental idea of what is now known as the
"nebular hypothesis"; but with his murder by the Inquisition at Rome
this idea seemed utterly to disappear--dissipated by the flames which in
1600 consumed his body on the Campo dei Fiori.
Yet within the two centuries divided by Bruno's death the world was led
into a new realm of thought in which an evolution theory of the visible
universe was sure to be rapidly developed. For there came, one after
the other, five of the greatest men our race has produced--Copernicus,
Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton--and when their work was done
the old theological conception of the universe was gone. "The spacious
firmament on high"--"the crystalline spheres"--the Almighty enthroned
upon "the circle of the heavens," and with his own lands, or with angels
as his agents, keeping sun, moon, and planets in motion for the benefit
of the earth, opening and closing the "windows of heaven," letting down
upon the earth the "waters above the firmament," "setting his bow in the
cloud," hanging out "signs and wonders," hurling comets, "casting forth
lightnings" to scare the wicked, and "shaking the earth" in his wrath:
all this had disappeared.
These five men had given a new divine revelation to the world; and
through the last, Newton, had come a vast new conception, destined to
be fatal to the old theory of creation, for he had shown throughout the
universe, in place of almighty caprice, all-pervading law. The bitter
opposition of theology to the first four of these men is well known;
but the fact is not so widely known that Newton, in spite of his deeply
religious spirit, was also strongly opposed. It was vigorously urged
against him that by his statement of the law of gravitation he "took
from God that direct action on his works so constantly ascribed to him
in Scripture and transferred it to material mechanism," and that he
"substituted gravitation for Providence."
But, more than this, these men gave a new basis for the theory of
evolution as distinguished from the theory of creation.
Especially worthy of note is it that the great work of Descartes,
erroneous as many of its deductions were, and, in view of the lack of
physical knowledge in his time, must be, had done much to weaken the
old conception. His theory of a universe brought out of all-pervading
matter, wrought into orderly arrangement by movements in accordance with
physical laws--though it was but a provisional hypothesis--had done much
to draw men's minds from the old theological view of creation; it was an
example of intellectual honesty arriving at errors, but thereby aiding
the advent of truths. Crippled though Descartes was by his almost
morbid fear of the Church, this part of his work was no small factor
in bringing in that attitude of mind which led to a reception of the
thoughts of more unfettered thinkers.
Thirty years later came, in England, an effort of a different sort, but
with a similar result. In 1678 Ralph Cudworth published his Intellectual
System of the Universe. To this day he remains, in breadth of
scholarship, in strength of thought, in tolerance, and in honesty, one
of the greatest glories of the English Church, and his work was
worthy of him. He purposed to build a fortress which should protect
Christianity against all dangerous theories of the universe, ancient
or modern. The foundations of the structure were laid with old thoughts
thrown often into new and striking forms; but, as the superstructure
arose more and more into view, while genius marked every part of it,
features appeared which gave the rigidly orthodox serious misgivings.
From the old theories of direct personal action on the universe by the
Almighty he broke utterly. He dwelt on the action of law, rejected the
continuous exercise of miraculous intervention, pointed out the fact
that in the natural world there are "errors" and "bungles," and argued
vigorously in favour of the origin and maintenance of the universe as
a slow and gradual development of Nature in obedience to an inward
principle. The Balaks of seventeenth-century orthodoxy might well
condemn this honest Balaam.
Toward the end of the next century a still more profound genius,
Immanuel Kant, presented the nebular theory, giving it, in the light of
Newton's great utterances, a consistency which it never before had; and
about the same time Laplace gave it yet greater strength by mathematical
reasonings of wonderful power and extent, thus implanting firmly in
modern thought the idea that our own solar system and others--suns,
planets, satellites, and their various movements, distances, and
magnitudes--necessarily result from the obedience of nebulous masses to
natural laws.
Throughout the theological world there was an outcry at once against
"atheism," and war raged fiercely. Herschel and others pointed out
many nebulous patches apparently gaseous. They showed by physical and
mathematical demonstrations that the hypothesis accounted for the great
body of facts, and, despite clamour, were gaining ground, when the
improved telescopes resolved some of the patches of nebulous matter
into multitudes of stars. The opponents of the nebular hypothesis were
overjoyed; they now sang paeans to astronomy, because, as they said,
it had proved the truth of Scripture. They had jumped to the conclusion
that all nebula must be alike; that, if SOME are made up of systems of
stars, ALL must be so made up; that none can be masses of attenuated
gaseous matter, because some are not.
Science halted for a time. The accepted doctrine became this: that the
only reason why all the nebula are not resolved into distinct stars is
that our telescopes are not sufficiently powerful. But in time came
the discovery of the spectroscope and spectrum analysis, and thence
Fraunhofer's discovery that the spectrum of an ignited gaseous body is
non-continuous, with interrupting lines; and Draper's discovery that the
spectrum of an ignited solid is continuous, with no interrupting lines.
And now the spectroscope was turned upon the nebula, and many of them
were found to be gaseous. Here, then, was ground for the inference
that in these nebulous masses at different stages of condensation--some
apparently mere pitches of mist, some with luminous centres--we have the
process of development actually going on, and observations like those of
Lord Rosse and Arrest gave yet further confirmation to this view. Then
came the great contribution of the nineteenth century to physics, aiding
to explain important parts of the vast process by the mechanical theory
of heat.
Again the nebular hypothesis came forth stronger than ever, and about
1850 the beautiful experiment of Plateau on the rotation of a fluid
globe came in apparently to illustrate if not to confirm it. Even so
determined a defender of orthodoxy as Mr. Gladstone at last acknowledged
some form of a nebular hypothesis as probably true.
Here, too, was exhibited that form of surrendering theological views
to science under the claim that science concurs with theology, which we
have seen in so many other fields; and, as typical, an example may
be given, which, however restricted in its scope, throws light on the
process by which such surrenders are obtained. A few years since one of
the most noted professors of chemistry in the city of New York, under
the auspices of one of its most fashionable churches, gave a lecture
which, as was claimed in the public prints and in placards posted in the
streets, was to show that science supports the theory of creation given
in the sacred books ascribed to Moses. A large audience assembled, and
a brilliant series of elementary experiments with oxygen, hydrogen,
and carbonic acid was concluded by the Plateau demonstration. It was
beautifully made. As the coloured globule of oil, representing the
earth, was revolved in a transparent medium of equal density, as it
became flattened at the poles, as rings then broke forth from it and
revolved about it, and, finally, as some of these rings broke into
satellites, which for a moment continued to circle about the central
mass, the audience, as well they might, rose and burst into rapturous
applause.
Thereupon a well-to-do citizen arose and moved the thanks of the
audience to the eminent professor for "this perfect demonstration of the
exact and literal conformity of the statements given in Holy Scripture
with the latest results of science." The motion was carried unanimously
and with applause, and the audience dispersed, feeling that a great
service had been rendered to orthodoxy. Sancta simplicitas!
What this incident exhibited on a small scale has been seen elsewhere
with more distinguished actors and on a broader stage. Scores of
theologians, chief among whom of late, in zeal if not in knowledge, has
been Mr. Gladstone, have endeavoured to "reconcile" the two accounts in
Genesis with each other and with the truths regarding the origin of
the universe gained by astronomy, geology, geography, physics, and
chemistry. The result has been recently stated by an eminent theologian,
the Hulsean Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge.
He declares, "No attempt at reconciling genesis with the exacting
requirements of modern sciences has ever been known to succeed without
entailing a degree of special pleading or forced interpretation to
which, in such a question, we should be wise to have no recourse."(9)
(9) For an interesting reference to the outcry against Newton, see
McCosh, The Religious Aspect of Evolution, New York, 1890, pp. 103,
104; for germs of an evolutionary view among the Babylonians, see George
Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, New York, 1876, pp. 74, 75; for a
germ of the same thought in Lucretius, see his De Natura Rerum, lib.
v, pp.187-194, 447-454; for Bruno's conjecture (in 1591), see Jevons,
Principles of Science, London, 1874, vol. ii, p. 36; for Kant's
statement, see his Naturgeschichte des Himmels; for his part in the
nebular hypothesis, see Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus, vol. i,
p.266; for the value of Plateau's beautiful experiment, very cautiously
estimated, see Jevons, vol. ii, p. 36; also Elisee Reclus, The Earth,
translated by Woodward, vol. i, pp. 14-18, for an estimate still more
careful; for a general account of discoveries of the nature of nebulae
by spectroscope, see Draper, Conflict between Religion and Science; for
a careful discussion regarding the spectra of solid, liquid, and gaseous
bodies, see Schellen, Spectrum Analysis, pp. 100 et seq.; for a very
thorough discussion of the bearings of discoveries made by spectrum
analysis upon the nebular hypothesis, ibid., pp. 532-537; for a
presentation of the difficulties yet unsolved, see an article by Plummer
in the London Popular Science Review for January, 1875; for an excellent
short summary of recent observations and thoughts on this subject, see
T. Sterry Hunt, Address at the Priestley Centennial, pp. 7, 8; for an
interesting modification of this hypothesis, see Proctor's writings; for
a still more recent view see Lockyer's two articles on The Sun's Place
in Nature for February 14 and 25, 1895.
The revelations of another group of sciences, though sometimes bitterly
opposed and sometimes "reconciled" by theologians, have finally set
the whole question at rest. First, there have come the biblical
critics--earnest Christian scholars, working for the sake of truth--and
these have revealed beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt the
existence of at least two distinct accounts of creation in our book of
Genesis, which can sometimes be forced to agree, but which are generally
absolutely at variance with each other. These scholars have further
shown the two accounts to be not the cunningly devised fables of
priestcraft, but evidently fragments of earlier legends, myths, and
theologies, accepted in good faith and brought together for the noblest
of purposes by those who put in order the first of our sacred books.
Next have come the archaeologists and philologists, the devoted students
of ancient monuments and records; of these are such as Rawlinson, George
Smith, Sayce, Oppert, Jensen, Schrader, Delitzsch, and a phalanx of
similarly devoted scholars, who have deciphered a multitude of ancient
texts, especially the inscriptions found in the great library of
Assurbanipal at Nineveh, and have discovered therein an account of the
origin of the world identical in its most important features with the
later accounts in our own book of Genesis.
These men have had the courage to point out these facts and to connect
them with the truth that these Chaldean and Babylonian myths, legends,
and theories were far earlier than those of the Hebrews, which so
strikingly resemble them, and which we have in our sacred books; and
they have also shown us how natural it was that the Jewish accounts of
the creation should have been obtained at that remote period when the
earliest Hebrews were among the Chaldeans, and how the great Hebrew
poetic accounts of creation were drawn either from the sacred traditions
of these earlier peoples or from antecedent sources common to various
ancient nations.
In a summary which for profound thought and fearless integrity does
honour not only to himself but to the great position which he holds,
the Rev. Dr. Driver, Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church at
Oxford, has recently stated the case fully and fairly. Having pointed
out the fact that the Hebrews were one people out of many who thought
upon the origin of the universe, he says that they "framed theories to
account for the beginnings of the earth and man"; that "they either did
this for themselves or borrowed those of their neighbours"; that "of the
theories current in Assyria and Phoenicia fragments have been preserved,
and these exhibit points of resemblance with the biblical narrative
sufficient to warrant the inference that both are derived from the same
cycle of tradition."
After giving some extracts from the Chaldean creation tablets he says:
"In the light of these facts it is difficult to resist the conclusion
that the biblical narrative is drawn from the same source as these other
records. The biblical historians, it is plain, derived their materials
from the best human sources available.... The materials which with other
nations were combined into the crudest physical theories or associated
with a grotesque polytheism were vivified and transformed by the
inspired genius of the Hebrew historians, and adapted to become the
vehicle of profound religious truth."
Not less honourable to the sister university and to himself is the
statement recently made by the Rev. Dr. Ryle, Hulsean Professor of
Divinity at Cambridge. He says that to suppose that a Christian "must
either renounce his confidence in the achievements of scientific
research or abandon his faith in Scripture is a monstrous perversion of
Christian freedom." He declares: "The old position is no longer tenable;
a new position has to be taken up at once, prayerfully chosen, and
hopefully held." He then goes on to compare the Hebrew story of creation
with the earlier stories developed among kindred peoples, and especially
with the pre-existing Assyro-Babylonian cosmogony, and shows that they
are from the same source. He points out that any attempt to explain
particular features of the story into harmony with the modern scientific
ideas necessitates "a non-natural" interpretation; but he says that, if
we adopt a natural interpretation, "we shall consider that the Hebrew
description of the visible universe is unscientific as judged by modern
standards, and that it shares the limitations of the imperfect knowledge
of the age at which it was committed to writing." Regarding the account
in Genesis of man's physical origin, he says that it "is expressed
in the simple terms of prehistoric legend, of unscientific pictorial
description."
In these statements and in a multitude of others made by eminent
Christian investigators in other countries is indicated what the victory
is which has now been fully won over the older theology.
Thus, from the Assyrian researches as well as from other sources, it
has come to be acknowledged by the most eminent scholars at the leading
seats of Christian learning that the accounts of creation with which
for nearly two thousand years all scientific discoveries have had to
be "reconciled"--the accounts which blocked the way of Copernicus, and
Galileo, and Newton, and Laplace--were simply transcribed or evolved
from a mass of myths and legends largely derived by the Hebrews from
their ancient relations with Chaldea, rewrought in a monotheistic sense,
imperfectly welded together, and then thrown into poetic forms in the
sacred books which we have inherited.
On one hand, then, we have the various groups of men devoted to the
physical sciences all converging toward the proofs that the universe,
as we at present know it, is the result of an evolutionary process--that
is, of the gradual working of physical laws upon an early condition of
matter; on the other hand, we have other great groups of men devoted to
historical, philological, and archaeological science whose researches
all converge toward the conclusion that our sacred accounts of creation
were the result of an evolution from an early chaos of rude opinion.
The great body of theologians who have so long resisted the conclusions
of the men of science have claimed to be fighting especially for "the
truth of Scripture," and their final answer to the simple conclusions
of science regarding the evolution of the material universe has been the
cry, "The Bible is true." And they are right--though in a sense nobler
than they have dreamed. Science, while conquering them, has found in our
Scriptures a far nobler truth than that literal historical exactness for
which theologians have so long and so vainly contended. More and more
as we consider the results of the long struggle in this field we are
brought to the conclusion that the inestimable value of the great sacred
books of the world is found in their revelation of the steady striving
of our race after higher conceptions, beliefs, and aspirations, both
in morals and religion. Unfolding and exhibiting this long-continued
effort, each of the great sacred books of the world is precious, and
all, in the highest sense, are true. Not one of them, indeed, conforms
to the measure of what mankind has now reached in historical and
scientific truth; to make a claim to such conformity is folly, for it
simply exposes those who make it and the books for which it is made to
loss of their just influence.
That to which the great sacred books of the world conform, and our own
most of all, is the evolution of the highest conceptions, beliefs,
and aspirations of our race from its childhood through the great
turning-points in its history. Herein lies the truth of all bibles, and
especially of our own. Of vast value they indeed often are as a record
of historical outward fact; recent researches in the East are constantly
increasing this value; but it is not for this that we prize them most:
they are eminently precious, not as a record of outward fact, but as
a mirror of the evolving heart, mind, and soul of man. They are true
because they have been developed in accordance with the laws governing
the evolution of truth in human history, and because in poem, chronicle,
code, legend, myth, apologue, or parable they reflect this development
of what is best in the onward march of humanity. To say that they are
not true is as if one should say that a flower or a tree or a planet is
not true; to scoff at them is to scoff at the law of the universe. In
welding together into noble form, whether in the book of Genesis, or in
the Psalms, or in the book of Job, or elsewhere, the great conceptions
of men acting under earlier inspiration, whether in Egypt, or Chaldea,
or India, or Persia, the compilers of our sacred books have given to
humanity a possession ever becoming more and more precious; and modern
science, in substituting a new heaven and a new earth for the old--the
reign of law for the reign of caprice, and the idea of evolution for
that of creation--has added and is steadily adding a new revelation
divinely inspired.
In the light of these two evolutions, then--one of the visible universe,
the other of a sacred creation-legend--science and theology, if the
master minds in both are wise, may at last be reconciled. A great
step in this reconciliation was recently seen at the main centre
of theological thought among English-speaking people, when, in the
collection of essays entitled Lux Mundi, emanating from the college
established in these latter days as a fortress of orthodoxy at Oxford,
the legendary character of the creation accounts in our sacred books was
acknowledged, and when the Archbishop of Canterbury asked, "May not the
Holy Spirit at times have made use of myth and legend?"(10)
(10) For the first citations above made, see The Cosmogony of Genesis,
by the Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D., Canon of Christ Church and Regius
Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, in the Expositor for January, 1886; for
the second series of citations, see the Early Narratives of Genesis, by
Herbert Edward Ryle, Hulsean Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, London,
1892. For evidence that even the stiffest of Scotch Presbyterians have
come to discard the old literal biblical narrative of creation and
to regard the declaration of the Westminster Confession thereon as
a "disproved theory of creation," see Principal John Tulloch,
in Contemporary Review, March, 1877, on Religious Thought in
Scotland--especially page 550.
II. THEOLOGICAL TEACHINGS REGARDING THE ANIMALS AND MAN.
In one of the windows of the cathedral at Ulm a mediaeval glass-stainer
has represented the Almighty as busily engaged in creating the animals,
and there has just left the divine hands an elephant fully
accoutred, with armour, harness, and housings, ready-for war. Similar
representations appear in illuminated manuscripts and even in early
printed books, and, as the culmination of the whole, the Almighty is
shown as fashioning the first man from a hillock of clay and extracting
from his side, with evident effort, the first woman.
This view of the general process of creation had come from far,
appearing under varying forms in various ancient cosmogonies. In
the Egyptian temples at Philae and Denderah may still be seen
representations of the Nile gods modelling lumps of clay into men, and
a similar work is ascribed in the Assyrian tablets to the gods of
Babylonia. Passing into our own sacred books, these ideas became the
starting point of a vast new development of theology.(11)
(11) For representations of Egyptian gods creating men out of lumps
of clay, see Maspero and Sayce, The Dawn of History, p. 156; for the
Chaldean legends of the creation of men and animals, see ibid., p. 543;
see also George Smith, Chaldean Accounts of Genesis, Sayce's edition,
pp. 36, 72, and 93; also for similar legends in other ancient nations,
Lenormant, Origines de l'Histoire, pp. 17 et seq.; for mediaeval
representations of the creation of man and woman, see Didron,
Iconographie, pp. 35, 178, 224, 537.
The fathers of the Church generally received each of the two conflicting
creation legends in Genesis literally, and then, having done their best
to reconcile them with each other and to mould them together, made them
the final test of thought upon the universe and all things therein. At
the beginning of the fourth century Lactantius struck the key-note of
this mode of subordinating all other things in the study of creation to
the literal text of Scripture, and he enforces his view of the creation
of man by a bit of philology, saying the final being created "is called
man because he is made from the ground--homo ex humo."
In the second half of the same century this view as to the literal
acceptance of the sacred text was reasserted by St. Ambrose, who, in his
work on the creation, declared that "Moses opened his mouth and poured
forth what God had said to him." But a greater than either of them
fastened this idea into the Christian theologies. St. Augustine,
preparing his Commentary on the Book of Genesis, laid down in one famous
sentence the law which has lasted in the Church until our own time:
"Nothing is to be accepted save on the authority of Scripture, since
greater is that authority than all the powers of the human mind." The
vigour of the sentence in its original Latin carried it ringing down the
centuries: "Major est Scripturae auctoritas quam omnis humani ingenii
capacitas."
Through the mediaeval period, in spite of a revolt led by no other
than St. Augustine himself, and followed by a series of influential
churchmen, contending, as we shall hereafter see, for a modification of
the accepted view of creation, this phrase held the minds of men firmly.
The great Dominican encyclopaedist, Vincent of Beauvais, in his Mirror
of Nature, while mixing ideas brought from Aristotle with a theory
drawn from the Bible, stood firmly by the first of the accounts given in
Genesis, and assigned the special virtue of the number six as a reason
why all things were created in six days; and in the later Middle Ages
that eminent authority, Cardinal d' Ailly, accepted everything regarding
creation in the sacred books literally. Only a faint dissent is seen
in Gregory Reisch, another authority of this later period, who, while
giving, in his book on the beginning of things, a full length woodcut
showing the Almighty in the act of extracting Eve from Adam's side,
with all the rest of new-formed Nature in the background, leans in his
writings, like St. Augustine, toward a belief in the pre-existence of
matter.
At the Reformation the vast authority of Luther was thrown in favour
of the literal acceptance of Scripture as the main source of natural
science. The allegorical and mystical interpretations of earlier
theologians he utterly rejected. "Why," he asks, "should Moses use
allegory when he is not speaking of allegorical creatures or of an
allegorical world, but of real creatures and of a visible world, which
can be seen, felt, and grasped? Moses calls things by their right names,
as we ought to do.... I hold that the animals took their being at once
upon the word of God, as did also the fishes in the sea."
Not less explicit in his adherence to the literal account of creation
given in Genesis was Calvin. He warns those who, by taking another view
than his own, "basely insult the Creator, to expect a judge who will
annihilate them." He insists that all species of animals were created
in six days, each made up of an evening and a morning, and that no new
species has ever appeared since. He dwells on the production of birds
from the water as resting upon certain warrant of Scripture, but adds,
"If the question is to be argued on physical grounds, we know that
water is more akin to air than the earth is." As to difficulties in the
scriptural account of creation, he tells us that God "wished by these to
give proofs of his power which should fill us with astonishment."
The controlling minds in the Roman Church steadfastly held this view. In
the seventeenth century Bossuet threw his vast authority in its favour,
and in his Discourse on Universal History, which has remained the
foundation not only of theological but of general historical teaching
in France down to the present republic, we find him calling attention to
what he regards as the culminating act of creation, and asserting that,
literally, for the creation of man earth was used, and "the finger of
God applied to corruptible matter."
The Protestant world held this idea no less persistently. In the
seventeenth century Dr. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Cambridge, the great rabbinical scholar of his time,
attempted to reconcile the two main legends in Genesis by saying that of
the "clean sort of beasts there were seven of every kind created, three
couples for breeding and the odd one for Adam's sacrifice on his fall,
which God foresaw"; and that of unclean beasts only one couple was
created.
So literal was this whole conception of the work of creation that in
these days it can scarcely be imagined. The Almighty was represented
in theological literature, in the pictured Bibles, and in works of art
generally, as a sort of enlarged and venerable Nuremberg toymaker. At
times the accounts in Genesis were illustrated with even more literal
exactness; thus, in connection with a well-known passage in the sacred
text, the Creator was shown as a tailor, seated, needle in hand,
diligently sewing together skins of beasts into coats for Adam and Eve.
Such representations presented no difficulties to the docile minds of
the Middle Ages and the Reformation period; and in the same spirit, when
the discovery of fossils began to provoke thought, these were declared
to be "models of his works approved or rejected by the great Artificer,"
"outlines of future creations," "sports of Nature," or "objects placed
in the strata to bring to naught human curiosity"; and this kind of
explanation lingered on until in our own time an eminent naturalist,
in his anxiety to save the literal account in Genesis, has urged that
Jehovah tilted and twisted the strata, scattered the fossils through
them, scratched the glacial furrows upon them, spread over them
the marks of erosion by water, and set Niagara pouring--all in an
instant--thus mystifying the world "for some inscrutable purpose, but
for his own glory."(12)
(12) For the citation from Lactantius, see Divin. Instit., lib. ii, cap.
xi, in Migne, tome vi, pp. 311, 312; for St. Augustine's great phrase,
see the De Genes. ad litt., ii, 5; for St. Ambrose, see lib. i, cap. ii;
for Vincent of Beauvais, see the Speculum Naturale, lib. i, cap. ii, and
lib. ii, cap. xv and xxx; also Bourgeat, Etudes sur Vincent de Beauvais,
Paris, 1856, especially chaps. vii, xii, and xvi; for Cardinal d"ailly,
see the Imago Mundi, and for Reisch, see the various editions of the
Margarita Philosophica; for Luther's statements, see Luther's Schriften,
ed. Walch, Halle, 1740, Commentary on Genesis, vol. i; for Calvin's view
of the creation of the animals, including the immutability of Species,
see the Comm. in Gen., tome i of his Opera omnia, Amst., 1671, cap. i,
v, xx, p. 5, also cap. ii, v, ii, p. 8, and elsewhere; for Bossuet, see
his Discours sur l'Histoire universelle (in his OEuvres, tome v, Paris,
1846); for Lightfoot, see his works, edited by Pitman, London, 1822;
for Bede, see the Hexaemeron, lib. i, in Migne, tome xci, p.21; for Mr.
Gosse'smodern defence of the literal view, see his Omphalos, London,
1857, passim.
The next important development of theological reasoning had regard to
the DIVISIONS of the animal kingdom.
Naturally, one of the first divisions which struck the inquiring
mind was that between useful and noxious creatures, and the question
therefore occurred, How could a good God create tigers and serpents,
thorns and thistles? The answer was found in theological considerations
upon SIN. To man's first disobedience all woes were due. Great men
for eighteen hundred years developed the theory that before Adam's
disobedience there was no death, and therefore neither ferocity nor
venom.
Some typical utterances in the evolution of this doctrine are worthy of
a passing glance. St. Augustine expressly confirmed and emphasized the
view that the vegetable as well as the animal kingdom was cursed on
account of man's sin. Two hundred years later this utterance had been
echoed on from father to father of the Church until it was caught by
Bede; he declared that before man's fall animals were harmless, but were
made poisonous or hurtful by Adam's sin, and he said, "Thus fierce and
poisonous animals were created for terrifying man (because God foresaw
that he would sin), in order that he might be made aware of the final
punishment of hell."
In the twelfth century this view was incorporated by Peter Lombard into
his great theological work, the Sentences, which became a text-book of
theology through the middle ages. He affirmed that "no created things
would have been hurtful to man had he not sinned; they became hurtful
for the sake of terrifying and punishing vice or of proving and
perfecting virtue; they were created harmless, and on account of sin
became hurtful."
This theological theory regarding animals was brought out in the
eighteenth century with great force by John Wesley. He declared that
before Adam's sin "none of these attempted to devour or in any wise hurt
one another"; "the spider was as harmless as the fly, and did not lie
in wait for blood." Not only Wesley, but the eminent Dr. Adam Clarke and
Dr. Richard Watson, whose ideas had the very greatest weight among the
English Dissenters, and even among leading thinkers in the Established
Church, held firmly to this theory; so that not until, in our own
time, geology revealed the remains of vast multitudes of carnivorous
creatures, many of them with half-digested remains of other animals in
their stomachs, all extinct long ages before the appearance of man upon
earth, was a victory won by science over theology in this field.
A curious development of this doctrine was seen in the belief drawn
by sundry old commentators from the condemnation of the serpent in
Genesis--a belief, indeed, perfectly natural, since it was evidently
that of the original writers of the account preserved in the first of
our sacred books. This belief was that, until the tempting serpent was
cursed by the Almighty, all serpents stood erect, walked, and talked.
This belief was handed down the ages as part of "the sacred deposit of
the faith" until Watson, the most prolific writer of the evangelical
reform in the eighteenth century and the standard theologian of the
evangelical party, declared: "We have no reason at all to believe
that the animal had a serpentine form in any mode or degree until its
transformation; that he was then degraded to a reptile to go upon his
belly imports, on the contrary, an entire loss and alteration of the
original form." Here, again, was a ripe result of the theologic method
diligently pursued by the strongest thinkers in the Church during nearly
two thousand years; but this "sacred deposit" also faded away when the
geologists found abundant remains of fossil serpents dating from periods
long before the appearance of man.
Troublesome questions also arose among theologians regarding animals
classed as "superfluous." St. Augustine was especially exercised
thereby. He says: "I confess I am ignorant why mice and frogs were
created, or flies and worms.... All creatures are either useful, hurtful,
or superfluous to us.... As for the hurtful creatures, we are either
punished, or disciplined, or terrified by them, so that we may not
cherish and love this life." As to the "superfluous animals," he says,
"Although they are not necessary for our service, yet the whole design
of the universe is thereby completed and finished." Luther, who followed
St. Augustine in so many other matters, declined to follow him fully in
this. To him a fly was not merely superfluous, it was noxious--sent by
the devil to vex him when reading.
Another subject which gave rise to much searching of Scripture and long
trains of theological reasoning was the difference between the creation
of man and that of other living beings.
Great stress was laid by theologians, from St. Basil and St. Augustine
to St. Thomas Aquinas and Bossuet, and from Luther to Wesley, on the
radical distinction indicated in Genesis, God having created man "in his
own image." What this statement meant was seen in the light of the later
biblical statement that "Adam begat Seth in his own likeness, after his
image."
In view of this and of well-known texts incorporated from older creation
legends into the Hebrew sacred books it came to be widely held that,
while man was directly moulded and fashioned separately by the Creator's
hand, the animals generally were evoked in numbers from the earth and
sea by the Creator's voice.
A question now arose naturally as to the DISTINCTIONS OF SPECIES among
animals. The vast majority of theologians agreed in representing all
animals as created "in the beginning," and named by Adam, preserved in
the ark, and continued ever afterward under exactly the same species.
This belief ripened into a dogma. Like so many other dogmas in the
Church, Catholic and Protestant, its real origins are to be found rather
in pagan philosophy than in the Christian Scriptures; it came far more
from Plato and Aristotle than from Moses and St. Paul. But this was not
considered: more and more it became necessary to believe that each
and every difference of species was impressed by the Creator "in the
beginning," and that no change had taken place or could have taken place
since.
Some difficulties arose here and there as zoology progressed and
revealed ever-increasing numbers of species; but through the Middle
Ages, and indeed long after the Reformation, these difficulties were
easily surmounted by making the ark of Noah larger and larger, and
especially by holding that there had been a human error in regard to its
measurement.(13)
(13) For St. Augustine, see De Genesis and De Trinitate, passim; for
Bede, see Hexaemeron, lib. i, in Migne, tome xci, pp. 21, 36-38, 42; and
De Sex Dierum Criatione, in Migne, tome xciii, p. 215; for Peter Lombard
on "noxious animals," see his Sententiae, lib. ii, dist. xv, 3, Migne,
tome cxcii, p. 682; for Wesley, Clarke, and Watson, see quotations from
them and notes thereto in my chapter on Geology; for St. Augustine
on "superfluous animals," see the De Genesi, lib. i, cap. xvi, 26; on
Luther's view of flies, see the Table Talk and his famous utterance,
"Odio muscas quia sunt imagines diaboli et hoereticorum"; for the agency
of Aristotle and Plato in fastening the belief in the fixity of species
into Christian theology, see Sachs, Geschichte der Botanik, Munchen,
1875, p. 107 and note, also p. 113.
But naturally there was developed among both ecclesiastics and laymen
a human desire to go beyond these special points in the history of
animated beings--a desire to know what the creation really IS.
Current legends, stories, and travellers' observations, poor as they
were, tended powerfully to stimulate curiosity in this field.
Three centuries before the Christian era Aristotle had made the
first really great attempt to satisfy this curiosity, and had begun
a development of studies in natural history which remains one of the
leading achievements in the story of our race.
But the feeling which we have already seen so strong in the early
Church--that all study of Nature was futile in view of the approaching
end of the world--indicated so clearly in the New Testament and voiced
so powerfully by Lactantius and St. Augustine--held back this current
of thought for many centuries. Still, the better tendency in humanity
continued to assert itself. There was, indeed, an influence coming from
the Hebrew Scriptures themselves which wrought powerfully to this end;
for, in spite of all that Lactantius or St. Augustine might say as to
the futility of any study of Nature, the grand utterances in the Psalms
regarding the beauties and wonders of creation, in all the glow of the
truest poetry, ennobled the study even among those whom logic drew away
from it.
But, as a matter of course, in the early Church and throughout the
Middle Ages all such studies were cast in a theologic mould. Without
some purpose of biblical illustration or spiritual edification they were
considered futile too much prying into the secrets of Nature was very
generally held to be dangerous both to body and soul; only for showing
forth God's glory and his purposes in the creation were such studies
praiseworthy. The great work of Aristotle was under eclipse. The early
Christian thinkers gave little attention to it, and that little was
devoted to transforming it into something absolutely opposed to his
whole spirit and method; in place of it they developed the Physiologus
and the Bestiaries, mingling scriptural statements, legends of the
saints, and fanciful inventions with pious intent and childlike
simplicity. In place of research came authority--the authority of the
Scriptures as interpreted by the Physio Cogus and the Bestiaries--and
these remained the principal source of thought on animated Nature for
over a thousand years.
Occasionally, indeed, fear was shown among the rulers in the Church,
even at such poor prying into the creation as this, and in the fifth
century a synod under Pope Gelasius administered a rebuke to the
Physiologus; but the interest in Nature was too strong: the great
work on Creation by St. Basil had drawn from the Physiologus precious
illustrations of Holy Writ, and the strongest of the early popes,
Gregory the Great, virtually sanctioned it.
Thus was developed a sacred science of creation and of the divine
purpose in Nature, which went on developing from the fourth century to
the nineteenth--from St. Basil to St. Isidore of Seville, from Isidore
to Vincent of Beauvais, and from Vincent to Archdeacon Paley and the
Bridgewater Treatises.
Like all else in the Middle Ages, this sacred science was developed
purely by theological methods. Neglecting the wonders which the
dissection of the commonest animals would have afforded them, these
naturalists attempted to throw light into Nature by ingenious use of
scriptural texts, by research among the lives of the saints, and by the
plentiful application of metaphysics. Hence even such strong men as
St. Isidore of Seville treasured up accounts of the unicorn and dragons
mentioned in the Scriptures and of the phoenix and basilisk in profane
writings. Hence such contributions to knowledge as that the basilisk
kills serpents by his breath and men by his glance, that the lion when
pursued effaces his tracks with the end of his tail, that the pelican
nourishes her young with her own blood, that serpents lay aside their
venom before drinking, that the salamander quenches fire, that the hyena
can talk with shepherds, that certain birds are born of the fruit of a
certain tree when it happens to fall into the water, with other masses
of science equally valuable.
As to the method of bringing science to bear on Scripture, the
Physiologus gives an example, illustrating the passage in the book of
Job which speaks of the old lion perishing for lack of prey. Out of
the attempt to explain an unusual Hebrew word in the text there came a
curious development of error, until we find fully evolved an account of
the "ant-lion," which, it gives us to understand, was the lion mentioned
by Job, and it says: "As to the ant-lion, his father hath the shape of
a lion, his mother that of an ant; the father liveth upon flesh and the
mother upon herbs; these bring forth the ant-lion, a compound of both
and in part like to either; for his fore part is like that of a lion and
his hind part like that of an ant. Being thus composed, he is neither
able to eat flesh like his father nor herbs like his mother, and so he
perisheth."
In the middle of the thirteenth century we have a triumph of this
theological method in the great work of the English Franciscan
Bartholomew on The Properties of Things. The theological method as
applied to science consists largely in accepting tradition and in
spinning arguments to fit it. In this field Bartholomew was a master.
Having begun with the intent mainly to explain the allusions in
Scripture to natural objects, he soon rises logically into a survey of
all Nature. Discussing the "cockatrice" of Scripture, he tells us: "He
drieth and burneth leaves with his touch, and he is of so great venom
and perilous that he slayeth and wasteth him that nigheth him without
tarrying; and yet the weasel overcometh him, for the biting of the
weasel is death to the cockatrice. Nevertheless the biting of the
cockatrice is death to the weasel if the weasel eat not rue before. And
though the cockatrice be venomous without remedy while he is alive,
yet he looseth all the malice when he is burnt to ashes. His ashes be
accounted profitable in working of alchemy, and namely in turning and
changing of metals."
Bartholomew also enlightens us on the animals of Egypt, and says, "If
the crocodile findeth a man by the water's brim he slayeth him, and then
he weepeth over him and swalloweth him."
Naturally this good Franciscan naturalist devotes much thought to the
"dragons" mentioned in Scripture. He says: "The dragon is most greatest
of all serpents, and oft he is drawn out of his den and riseth up into
the air, and the air is moved by him, and also the sea swelleth against
his venom, and he hath a crest, and reareth his tongue, and hath teeth
like a saw, and hath strength, and not only in teeth but in tail, and
grieveth with biting and with stinging. Whom he findeth he slayeth.
Oft four or five of them fasten their tails together and rear up their
heads, and sail over the sea to get good meat. Between elephants and
dragons is everlasting fighting; for the dragon with his tail spanneth
the elephant, and the elephant with his nose throweth down the
dragon.... The cause why the dragon desireth his blood is the coldness
thereof, by the which the dragon desireth to cool himself. Jerome saith
that the dragon is a full thirsty beast, insomuch that he openeth his
mouth against the wind to quench the burning of his thirst in that wise.
Therefore, when he seeth ships in great wind he flieth against the sail
to take the cold wind, and overthroweth the ship."
These ideas of Friar Bartholomew spread far and struck deep into the
popular mind. His book was translated into the principal languages of
Europe, and was one of those most generally read during the Ages of
Faith. It maintained its position nearly three hundred years; even after
the invention of printing it held its own, and in the fifteenth century
there were issued no less than ten editions of it in Latin, four in
French, and various versions of it in Dutch, Spanish, and English.
Preachers found it especially useful in illustrating the ways of God
to man. It was only when the great voyages of discovery substituted
ascertained fact for theological reasoning in this province that its
authority was broken.
The same sort of science flourished in the Bestiaries, which were used
everywhere, and especially in the pulpits, for the edification of the
faithful. In all of these, as in that compiled early in the thirteenth
century by an ecclesiastic, William of Normandy, we have this lesson,
borrowed from the Physiologus: "The lioness giveth birth to cubs which
remain three days without life. Then cometh the lion, breatheth upon
them, and bringeth them to life.... Thus it is that Jesus Christ
during three days was deprived of life, but God the Father raised him
gloriously."
Pious use was constantly made of this science, especially by monkish
preachers. The phoenix rising from his ashes proves the doctrine of the
resurrection; the structure and mischief of monkeys proves the existence
of demons; the fact that certain monkeys have no tails proves that Satan
has been shorn of his glory; the weasel, which "constantly changes its
place, is a type of the man estranged from the word of God, who findeth
no rest."
The moral treatises of the time often took the form of works on natural
history, in order the more fully to exploit these religious teachings of
Nature. Thus from the book On Bees, the Dominican Thomas of Cantimpre,
we learn that "wasps persecute bees and make war on them out of natural
hatred"; and these, he tells us, typify the demons who dwell in the
air and with lightning and tempest assail and vex mankind--whereupon he
fills a long chapter with anecdotes of such demonic warfare on mortals.
In like manner his fellow-Dominican, the inquisitor Nider, in his book
The Ant Hill, teaches us that the ants in Ethiopia, which are said to
have horns and to grow so large as to look like dogs, are emblems of
atrocious heretics, like Wyclif and the Hussites, who bark and bite
against the truth; while the ants of India, which dig up gold out of
the sand with their feet and hoard it, though they make no use of it,
symbolize the fruitless toil with which the heretics dig out the gold of
Holy Scripture and hoard it in their books to no purpose.
This pious spirit not only pervaded science; it bloomed out in art, and
especially in the cathedrals. In the gargoyles overhanging the walls, in
the grotesques clambering about the towers or perched upon pinnacles, in
the dragons prowling under archways or lurking in bosses of foliage, in
the apocalyptic beasts carved upon the stalls of the choir, stained into
the windows, wrought into the tapestries, illuminated in the letters
and borders of psalters and missals, these marvels of creation suggested
everywhere morals from the Physiologus, the Bestiaries, and the
Exempla.(14)
(14) For the Physiologus, Bestiaries, etc., see Berger de Xivrey,
Traditions Teratologiques; also Hippeau's edition of the Bestiare de
Guillaume de Normandie, Caen, 1852, and such medieaval books of Exempla
as the Lumen Naturae; also Hoefer, Histoire de la Zoologie; also
Rambaud, Histoire de la Civilisation Francaise, Paris, 1885, vol i, pp.
368, 369; also Cardinal Pitra, preface to the Spicilegium Solismense,
Paris, 1885, passim; also Carus, Geschichte der Zoologie; and for
an admirable summary, the article Physiologus in the Encyclopedia
Britannica. In the illuminated manuscripts in the Library of Cornell
University are some very striking examples of grotesques. For admirably
illustrated articles on the Bestiaries, see Cahier and Martin, Melanges
d'Archeologie, Paris, 1851, 1852, and 1856, vol. ii of the first series,
pp. 85-232, and second series, volume on Curiosities Mysterieuses, pp.
106-164; also J. R. Allen, Early Christian Symbolism in Great Britain
and Ireland (London, 1887), lecture vi; for an exhaustive discussion of
the subject, see Das Thierbuch des normannischen Dichters Guillaume le
Clerc, herausgegeben von Reinisch, Leipsic, 1890; and for an Italian
examlpe, Goldstaub and Wendriner, Ein Tosco-Venezianischer Bestiarius,
Halle, 1892, where is given, on pp. 369-371, a very pious but very
comical tradition regarding the beaver, hardly mentionable to ears
polite. For Friar Bartholomew, see (besides his book itself) Medieval
Lore, edited by Robert Steele, London, 1893, pp. 118-138.
Here and there among men who were free from church control we have work
of a better sort. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Abd Allatif
made observations upon the natural history of Egypt which showed a truly
scientific spirit, and the Emperor Frederick II attempted to promote a
more fruitful study of Nature; but one of these men was abhorred as a
Mussulman and the other as an infidel. Far more in accordance with the
spirit of the time was the ecclesiastic Giraldus Cambrensis, whose book
on the topography of Ireland bestows much attention upon the animals
of the island, and rarely fails to make each contribute an appropriate
moral. For example, he says that in Ireland "eagles live for so many
ages that they seem to contend with eternity itself; so also the saints,
having put off the old man and put on the new, obtain the blessed fruit
of everlasting life." Again, he tells us: "Eagles often fly so high that
their wings are scorched by the sun; so those who in the Holy Scriptures
strive to unravel the deep and hidden secrets of the heavenly mysteries,
beyond what is allowed, fall below, as if the wings of the presumptuous
imaginations on which they are borne were scorched."
In one of the great men of the following century appeared a gleam of
healthful criticism: Albert the Great, in his work on the animals,
dissents from the widespread belief that certain birds spring from trees
and are nourished by the sap, and also from the theory that some are
generated in the sea from decaying wood.
But it required many generations for such scepticism to produce much
effect, and we find among the illustrations in an edition of Mandeville
published just before the Reformation not only careful accounts but
pictured representations both of birds and of beasts produced in the
fruit of trees.(15)
(15) For Giraldus Cambrensis, see the edition in the Bohn Library,
London, 1863, p. 30; for the Abd Allatif and Frederick II, see Hoefer,
as above; for Albertus Magnus, see the De Animalibus, lib. xxiii; for
the illustrations in Mandeville, see the Strasburg edition, 1484;
for the history of the myth of the tree which produces birds, see Max
Muller's lectures on the Science of Language, second series, lect. xii.
This general employment of natural science for pious purposes went on
after the Reformation. Luther frequently made this use of it, and his
example controlled his followers. In 1612, Wolfgang Franz, Professor of
Theology at Luther's university, gave to the world his sacred history of
animals, which went through many editions. It contained a very ingenious
classification, describing "natural dragons," which have three rows of
teeth to each jaw, and he piously adds, "the principal dragon is the
Devil."
Near the end of the same century, Father Kircher, the great Jesuit
professor at Rome, holds back the sceptical current, insists upon the
orthodox view, and represents among the animals entering the ark sirens
and griffins.
Yet even among theologians we note here and there a sceptical spirit
in natural science. Early in the same seventeenth century Eugene
Roger published his Travels in Palestine. As regards the utterances
of Scripture he is soundly orthodox: he prefaces his work with a map
showing, among other important points referred to in biblical history,
the place where Samson slew a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of
an ass, the cavern which Adam and Eve inhabited after their expulsion
from paradise, the spot where Balaam's ass spoke, the place where Jacob
wrestled with the angel, the steep place down which the swine possessed
of devils plunged into the sea, the position of the salt statue which
was once Lot's wife, the place at sea where Jonah was swallowed by
the whale, and "the exact spot where St. Peter caught one hundred and
fifty-three fishes."
As to natural history, he describes and discusses with great theological
acuteness the basilisk. He tells us that the animal is about a foot and
a half long, is shaped like a crocodile, and kills people with a single
glance. The one which he saw was dead, fortunately for him, since in
the time of Pope Leo IV--as he tells us--one appeared in Rome and killed
many people by merely looking at them; but the Pope destroyed it with
his prayers and the sign of the cross. He informs us that Providence
has wisely and mercifully protected man by requiring the monster to cry
aloud two or three times whenever it leaves its den, and that the divine
wisdom in creation is also shown by the fact that the monster is obliged
to look its victim in the eye, and at a certain fixed distance, before
its glance can penetrate the victim's brain and so pass to his heart.
He also gives a reason for supposing that the same divine mercy has
provided that the crowing of a cock will kill the basilisk.
Yet even in this good and credulous missionary we see the influence of
Bacon and the dawn of experimental science; for, having been told many
stories regarding the salamander, he secured one, placed it alive upon
the burning coals, and reports to us that the legends concerning its
power to live in the fire are untrue. He also tried experiments with
the chameleon, and found that the stories told of it were to be received
with much allowance: while, then, he locks up his judgment whenever he
discusses the letter of Scripture, he uses his mind in other things much
after the modern method.
In the second half of the same century Hottinger, in his Theological
Examination of the History of Creation, breaks from the belief in the
phoenix; but his scepticism is carefully kept within the limits imposed
by Scripture. He avows his doubts, first, "because God created the
animals in couples, while the phoenix is represented as a single,
unmated creature"; secondly, "because Noah, when he entered the ark,
brought the animals in by sevens, while there were never so many
individuals of the phoenix species"; thirdly, because "no man is known
who dares assert that he has ever seen this bird"; fourthly, because
"those who assert there is a phoenix differ among themselves."
In view of these attacks on the salamander and the phoenix, we are not
surprised to find, before the end of the century, scepticism regarding
the basilisk: the eminent Prof. Kirchmaier, at the University of
Wittenberg, treats phoenix and basilisk alike as old wives' fables. As
to the phoenix, he denies its existence, not only because Noah took no
such bird into the ark, but also because, as he pithily remarks, "birds
come from eggs, not from ashes." But the unicorn he can not resign, nor
will he even concede that the unicorn is a rhinoceros; he appeals to
Job and to Marco Polo to prove that this animal, as usually conceived,
really exists, and says, "Who would not fear to deny the existence of
the unicorn, since Holy Scripture names him with distinct praises?"
As to the other great animals mentioned in Scripture, he is so
rationalistic as to admit that behemoth was an elephant and leviathan a
whale.
But these germs of a fruitful scepticism grew, and we soon find
Dannhauer going a step further and declaring his disbelief even in the
unicorn, insisting that it was a rhinoceros--only that and nothing more.
Still, the main current continued strongly theological. In 1712 Samuel
Bochart published his great work upon the animals of Holy Scripture. As
showing its spirit we may take the titles of the chapters on the horse:
"Chapter VI. Of the Hebrew Name of the Horse."
"Chapter VII. Of the Colours of the Six Horses in Zechariah."
"Chapter VIII. Of the Horses in Job."
"Chapter IX. Of Solomon's Horses, and of the Texts wherein the Writers
praise the Excellence of Horses."
"Chapter X. Of the Consecrated Horses of the Sun."
Among the other titles of chapters are such as: Of Balaam's Ass; Of the
Thousand Philistines slain by Samson with the Jawbone of an Ass; Of
the Golden Calves of Aaron and Jeroboam; Of the Bleating, Milk, Wool,
External and Internal Parts of Sheep mentioned in Scripture; Of Notable
Things told regarding Lions in Scripture; Of Noah's Dove and of the
Dove which appeared at Christ's Baptism. Mixed up in the book, with
the principal mass drawn from Scripture, were many facts and reasonings
taken from investigations by naturalists; but all were permeated by the
theological spirit.(16)
(16) For Franz and Kircher, see Perrier, La Philosophie Zoologique avant
Darwin, 1884, p. 29; for Roger, see his La Terre Saincte, Paris, 1664,
pp. 89-92, 130, 218, etc.; for Hottinger, see his Historiae
Creatonis Examen theologico-philologicum, Heidelberg, 1659, lib.
vi, quaest lxxxiii; for Kirchmaier, see his Disputationes Zoologicae
(published collectively after his death), Jena, 1736; for Dannhauer, see
his Disputationes Theologicae, Leipsic, 1707, p. 14; for Bochart, see
his Hierozoikon, sive De Animalibus Sacre Scripturae, Leyden, 1712.
The inquiry into Nature having thus been pursued nearly two thousand
years theologically, we find by the middle of the sixteenth century some
promising beginnings of a different method--the method of inquiry into
Nature scientifically--the method which seeks not plausibilities but
facts. At that time Edward Wotton led the way in England and Conrad
Gesner on the Continent, by observations widely extended, carefully
noted, and thoughtfully classified.
This better method of interrogating Nature soon led to the formation of
societies for the same purpose. In 1560 was founded an Academy for the
Study of Nature at Naples, but theologians, becoming alarmed, suppressed
it, and for nearly one hundred years there was no new combined effort
of that sort, until in 1645 began the meetings in London of what was
afterward the Royal Society. Then came the Academy of Sciences in
France, and the Accademia del Cimento in Italy; others followed in all
parts of the world, and a great new movement was begun.
Theologians soon saw a danger in this movement. In Italy, Prince Leopold
de' Medici, a protector of the Florentine Academy, was bribed with a
cardinal's hat to neglect it, and from the days of Urban VIII to Pius
IX a similar spirit was there shown. In France, there were frequent
ecclesiastical interferences, of which Buffon's humiliation for stating
a simple scientific truth was a noted example. In England, Protestantism
was at first hardly more favourable toward the Royal Society, and the
great Dr. South denounced it in his sermons as irreligious.
Fortunately, one thing prevented an open breach between theology and
science: while new investigators had mainly given up the medieval method
so dear to the Church, they had very generally retained the conception
of direct creation and of design throughout creation--a design having
as its main purpose the profit, instruction, enjoyment, and amusement of
man.
On this the naturally opposing tendencies of theology and science were
compromised. Science, while somewhat freed from its old limitations,
became the handmaid of theology in illustrating the doctrine of creative
design, and always with apparent deference to the Chaldean and other
ancient myths and legends embodied in the Hebrew sacred books.
About the middle of the seventeenth century came a great victory of
the scientific over the theologic method. At that time Francesco Redi
published the results of his inquiries into the doctrine of spontaneous
generation. For ages a widely accepted doctrine had been that water,
filth, and carrion had received power from the Creator to generate
worms, insects, and a multitude of the smaller animals; and this
doctrine had been especially welcomed by St. Augustine and many of the
fathers, since it relieved the Almighty of making, Adam of naming, and
Noah of living in the ark with these innumerable despised species.
But to this fallacy Redi put an end. By researches which could not be
gainsaid, he showed that every one of these animals came from an egg;
each, therefore, must be the lineal descendant of an animal created,
named, and preserved from "the beginning."
Similar work went on in England, but under more distinctly theological
limitations. In the same seventeenth century a very famous and popular
English book was published by the naturalist John Ray, a fellow of the
Royal Society, who produced a number of works on plants, fishes, and
birds; but the most widely read of all was entitled The Wisdom of God
manifested in the Works of Creation. Between the years 1691 and 1827 it
passed through nearly twenty editions.
Ray argued the goodness and wisdom of God from the adaptation of the
animals not only to man's uses but to their own lives and surroundings.
In the first years of the eighteenth century Dr. Nehemiah Grew, of the
Royal Society, published his Cosmologia Sacra to refute anti-scriptural
opinions by producing evidences of creative design. Discussing "the ends
of Providence," he says, "A crane, which is scurvy meat, lays but two
eggs in the year, but a pheasant and partridge, both excellent meat, lay
and hatch fifteen or twenty." He points to the fact that "those of value
which lay few at a time sit the oftener, as the woodcock and the dove."
He breaks decidedly from the doctrine that noxious things in Nature are
caused by sin, and shows that they, too, are useful; that, "if nettles
sting, it is to secure an excellent medicine for children and cattle";
that, "if the bramble hurts man, it makes all the better hedge"; and
that, "if it chances to prick the owner, it tears the thief." "Weasels,
kites, and other hurtful animals induce us to watchfulness; thistles and
moles, to good husbandry; lice oblige us to cleanliness in our
bodies, spiders in our houses, and the moth in our clothes." This very
optimistic view, triumphing over the theological theory of noxious
animals and plants as effects of sin, which prevailed with so much force
from St. Augustine to Wesley, was developed into nobler form during the
century by various thinkers, and especially by Archdeacon Paley, whose
Natural Theology exercised a powerful influence down to recent
times. The same tendency appeared in other countries, though various
philosophers showed weak points in the argument, and Goethe made sport
of it in a noted verse, praising the forethought of the Creator in
foreordaining the cork tree to furnish stoppers for wine-bottles.
Shortly before the middle of the nineteenth century the main movement
culminated in the Bridgewater Treatises. Pursuant to the will of the
eighth Earl of Bridgewater, the President of the Royal Society selected
eight persons, each to receive a thousand pounds sterling for writing
and publishing a treatise on the "power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as
manifested in the creation." Of these, the leading essays in regard
to animated Nature were those of Thomas Chalmers, on The Adaptation of
External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Condition of Man; of Sir
Charles Bell, on The Hand as evincing Design; of Roget, on Animal and
Vegetable Physiology with reference to Natural Theology; and of Kirby,
on The Habits and Instincts of Animals with reference to Natural
Theology.
Besides these there were treatises by Whewell, Buckland, Kidd, and
Prout. The work was well done. It was a marked advance on all that had
appeared before, in matter, method, and spirit. Looking back upon it
now we can see that it was provisional, but that it was none the less
fruitful in truth, and we may well remember Darwin's remark on
the stimulating effect of mistaken THEORIES, as compared with the
sterilizing effect of mistaken OBSERVATIONS: mistaken observations lead
men astray, mistaken theories suggest true theories.
An effort made in so noble a spirit certainly does not deserve the
ridicule that, in our own day, has sometimes been lavished upon it.
Curiously, indeed, one of the most contemptuous of these criticisms has
been recently made by one of the most strenuous defenders of orthodoxy.
No less eminent a standard-bearer of the faith than the Rev. Prof.
Zoeckler says of this movement to demonstrate creative purpose and
design, and of the men who took part in it, "The earth appeared in their
representation of it like a great clothing shop and soup kitchen, and
God as a glorified rationalistic professor." Such a statement as this
is far from just to the conceptions of such men as Butler, Paley,
and Chalmers, no matter how fully the thinking world has now outlived
them.(17)
(17) For a very valuable and interesting study on the old idea of the
generation of insects from carrion, see Osten-Sacken, on the Oxen-born
Bees of the Ancients, Heidelberg, 1894; for Ray, see the work cited,
London, 1827, p. 153; for Grew, see Cosmologia Sacra, or a Discourse on
the Universe, as it is the Creature and Kingdom of God; chiefly written
to demonstrate the Truth and Excellency of the Bible, by Dr. Nehemiah
Grew, Fellow of the College of Physicians and of the Royal Society of
London, 1701; for Paley and the Bridgewater Treatises, see the usual
editions; also Lange, History of Rationalism. Goethe's couplet ran as
follows:
"Welche Verehrung verdient der Weltenerschopfer, der Gnadig, Als er den
Korkbaum erschuf, gleich auch die Stopfel erfand."
For the quotation from Zoeckler, see his work already cited, vol. ii,
pp. 74, 440.
But, noble as the work of these men was, the foundation of fact on which
they reared it became evidently more and more insecure. For as far
back as the seventeenth century acute theologians had begun to discern
difficulties more serious than any that had before confronted them.
More and more it was seen that the number of different species was far
greater than the world had hitherto imagined. Greater and greater had
become the old difficulty in conceiving that, of these innumerable
species, each had been specially created by the Almighty hand; that each
had been brought before Adam by the Almighty to be named; and that each,
in couples or in sevens, had been gathered by Noah into the ark. But the
difficulties thus suggested were as nothing compared to those raised by
the DISTRIBUTION of animals.
Even in the first days of the Church this had aroused serious thought,
and above all in the great mind of St. Augustine. In his City of God he
had stated the difficulty as follows: "But there is a question about all
these kinds of beasts, which are neither tamed by man, nor spring from
the earth like frogs, such as wolves and others of that sort,.... as
to how they could find their way to the islands after that flood which
destroyed every living thing not preserved in the ark.... Some, indeed,
might be thought to reach islands by swimming, in case these were very
near; but some islands are so remote from continental lands that it does
not seem possible that any creature could reach them by swimming. It
is not an incredible thing, either, that some animals may have been
captured by men and taken with them to those lands which they intended
to inhabit, in order that they might have the pleasure of hunting;
and it can not be denied that the transfer may have been accomplished
through the agency of angels, commanded or allowed to perform this
labour by God."
But this difficulty had now assumed a magnitude of which St. Augustine
never dreamed. Most powerful of all agencies to increase it were the
voyages of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Amerigo Vespucci, and
other navigators of the period of discovery. Still more serious did it
become as the great islands of the southern seas were explored. Every
navigator brought home tidings of new species of animals and of races of
men living in parts of the world where the theologians, relying on the
statement of St. Paul that the gospel had gone into all lands, had for
ages declared there could be none; until finally it overtaxed even
the theological imagination to conceive of angels, in obedience to
the divine command, distributing the various animals over the earth,
dropping the megatherium in South America, the archeopteryx in Europe,
the ornithorhynchus in Australia, and the opossum in North America.
The first striking evidence of this new difficulty was shown by the
eminent Jesuit missionary, Joseph Acosta. In his Natural and Moral
History of the Indies, published in 1590, he proved himself honest and
lucid. Though entangled in most of the older scriptural views, he broke
away from many; but the distribution of animals gave him great trouble.
Having shown the futility of St. Augustine's other explanations, he
quaintly asks: "Who can imagine that in so long a voyage men woulde
take the paines to carrie Foxes to Peru, especially that kinde they call
'Acias,' which is the filthiest I have seene? Who woulde likewise say
that they have carried Tygers and Lyons? Truly it were a thing worthy
the laughing at to thinke so. It was sufficient, yea, very much, for
men driven against their willes by tempest, in so long and unknowne a
voyage, to escape with their owne lives, without busying themselves to
carrie Woolves and Foxes, and to nourish them at sea."
It was under the impression made by this new array of facts that in 1667
Abraham Milius published at Geneva his book on The Origin of Animals
and the Migration of Peoples. This book shows, like that of Acosta,
the shock and strain to which the discovery of America subjected the
received theological scheme of things. It was issued with the special
approbation of the Bishop of Salzburg, and it indicates the possibility
that a solution of the whole trouble may be found in the text, "Let the
earth bring forth the living creature after his kind." Milius goes on to
show that the ancient philosophers agree with Moses, and that "the earth
and the waters, and especially the heat of the sun and of the genial
sky, together with that slimy and putrid quality which seems to be
inherent in the soil, may furnish the origin for fishes, terrestrial
animals, and birds." On the other hand, he is very severe against those
who imagine that man can have had the same origin with animals. But the
subject with which Milius especially grapples is the DISTRIBUTION of
animals. He is greatly exercised by the many species found in America
and in remote islands of the ocean--species entirely unknown in the
other continents--and of course he is especially troubled by the fact
that these species existing in those exceedingly remote parts of the
earth do not exist in the neighbourhood of Mount Ararat. He confesses
that to explain the distribution of animals is the most difficult part
of the problem. If it be urged that birds could reach America by flying
and fishes by swimming, he asks, "What of the beasts which neither fly
nor swim?" Yet even as to the birds he asks, "Is there not an infinite
variety of winged creatures who fly so slowly and heavily, and have such
a horror of the water, that they would not even dare trust themselves to
fly over a wide river?" As to fishes, he says, "They are very averse
to wandering from their native waters," and he shows that there are
now reported many species of American and East Indian fishes entirely
unknown on the other continents, whose presence, therefore, can not be
explained by any theory of natural dispersion.
Of those who suggest that land animals may have been dispersed over the
earth by the direct agency of man for his use or pleasure he asks: "Who
would like to get different sorts of lions, bears, tigers, and other
ferocious and noxious creatures on board ship? who would trust himself
with them? and who would wish to plant colonies of such creatures in
new, desirable lands?"
His conclusion is that plants and animals take their origin in the lands
wherein they are found; an opinion which he supports by quoting from the
two narrations in Genesis passages which imply generative force in earth
and water.
But in the eighteenth century matters had become even worse for the
theological view. To meet the difficulty the eminent Benedictine, Dom
Calmet, in his Commentary, expressed the belief that all the species of
a genus had originally formed one species, and he dwelt on this view
as one which enabled him to explain the possibility of gathering all
animals into the ark. This idea, dangerous as it was to the fabric of
orthodoxy, and involving a profound separation from the general doctrine
of the Church, seems to have been abroad among thinking men, for we
find in the latter half of the same century even Linnaeus inclining to
consider it. It was time, indeed, that some new theological theory be
evolved; the great Linnaeus himself, in spite of his famous declaration
favouring the fixity of species, had dealt a death-blow to the
old theory. In his Systema Naturae, published in the middle of the
eighteenth century, he had enumerated four thousand species of animals,
and the difficulties involved in the naming of each of them by Adam and
in bringing them together in the ark appeared to all thinking men more
and more insurmountable.
What was more embarrassing, the number of distinct species went on
increasing rapidly, indeed enormously, until, as an eminent zoological
authority of our own time has declared, "for every one of the species
enumerated by Linnaeus, more than fifty kinds are known to the
naturalist of to-day, and the number of species still unknown doubtless
far exceeds the list of those recorded."
Already there were premonitions of the strain made upon Scripture by
requiring a hundred and sixty distinct miraculous interventions of the
Creator to produce the hundred and sixty species of land shells found
in the little island of Madeira alone, and fourteen hundred distinct
interventions to produce the actual number of distinct species of a
single well-known shell.
Ever more and more difficult, too, became the question of the
geographical distribution of animals. As new explorations were made in
various parts of the world, this danger to the theological view went on
increasing. The sloths in South America suggested painful questions: How
could animals so sluggish have got away from the neighbourhood of Mount
Ararat so completely and have travelled so far?
The explorations in Australia and neighbouring islands made matters
still worse, for there was found in those regions a whole realm of
animals differing widely from those of other parts of the earth.
The problem before the strict theologians became, for example, how to
explain the fact that the kangaroo can have been in the ark and be now
only found in Australia: his saltatory powers are indeed great, but
how could he by any series of leaps have sprung across the intervening
mountains, plains, and oceans to that remote continent? and, if the
theory were adopted that at some period a causeway extended across the
vast chasm separating Australia from the nearest mainland, why did not
lions, tigers, camels, and camelopards force or find their way across
it?
The theological theory, therefore, had by the end of the eighteenth
century gone to pieces. The wiser theologians waited; the unwise
indulged in exhortations to "root out the wicked heart of unbelief," in
denunciation of "science falsely so called," and in frantic declarations
that "the Bible is true"--by which they meant that the limited
understanding of it which they had happened to inherit is true.
By the middle of the nineteenth century the whole theological theory
of creation--though still preached everywhere as a matter of form--was
clearly seen by all thinking men to be hopelessly lost: such strong men
as Cardinal Wiseman in the Roman Church, Dean Buckland in the Anglican,
and Hugh Miller in the Scottish Church, made heroic efforts to save
something from it, but all to no purpose. That sturdy Teutonic and
Anglo-Saxon honesty, which is the best legacy of the Middle Ages to
Christendom, asserted itself in the old strongholds of theological
thought, the universities. Neither the powerful logic of Bishop Butler
nor the nimble reasoning of Archdeacon Paley availed. Just as the line
of astronomical thinkers from Copernicus to Newton had destroyed the old
astronomy, in which the earth was the centre, and the Almighty sitting
above the firmament the agent in moving the heavenly bodies about it
with his own hands, so now a race of biological thinkers had destroyed
the old idea of a Creator minutely contriving and fashioning all animals
to suit the needs and purposes of man. They had developed a system of a
very different sort, and this we shall next consider.(18)
(18) For Acosta, see his Historia Natural y moral de las Indias,
Seville, 1590--the quaint English translation is of London, 1604; for
Abraham Milius, see his De Origine Animalium et Migratione Popularum,
Geneva, 1667; also Kosmos, 1877, H. I, S. 36; for Linnaeus's declaration
regarding species, see the Philosophia Botanica, 99, 157; for Calmet and
Linnaeus, see Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 237. As to the enormously increasing
numbers of species in zoology and botany, see President D. S. Jordan,
Science Sketches, pp. 176, 177; also for pithy statement, Laing's
Problems of the Future, chap. vi.
III. THEOLOGICAL AND SCIENTIFIC THEORIES, OF AN EVOLUTION IN ANIMATED
NATURE.
We have seen, thus far, how there came into the thinking of mankind
upon the visible universe and its inhabitants the idea of a creation
virtually instantaneous and complete, and of a Creator in human form
with human attributes, who spoke matter into existence literally by the
exercise of his throat and lips, or shaped and placed it with his hands
and fingers.
We have seen that this view came from far; that it existed in the
Chaldaeo-Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations, and probably in others
of the earliest date known to us; that its main features passed thence
into the sacred books of the Hebrews and then into the early Christian
Church, by whose theologians it was developed through the Middle Ages
and maintained during the modern period.
But, while this idea was thus developed by a succession of noble and
thoughtful men through thousands of years, another conception, to all
appearance equally ancient, was developed, sometimes in antagonism to
it, sometimes mingled with it--the conception of all living beings as
wholly or in part the result of a growth process--of an evolution.
This idea, in various forms, became a powerful factor in nearly all the
greater ancient theologies and philosophies. For very widespread among
the early peoples who attained to much thinking power was a conception
that, in obedience to the divine fiat, a watery chaos produced the
earth, and that the sea and land gave birth to their inhabitants.
This is clearly seen in those records of Chaldaeo-Babylonian thought
deciphered in these latter years, to which reference has already been
made. In these we have a watery chaos which, under divine action, brings
forth the earth and its inhabitants; first the sea animals and then the
land animals--the latter being separated into three kinds, substantially
as recorded afterward in the Hebrew accounts. At the various stages in
the work the Chaldean Creator pronounces it "beautiful," just as the
Hebrew Creator in our own later account pronounces it "good."
In both accounts there is placed over the whole creation a solid,
concave firmament; in both, light is created first, and the heavenly
bodies are afterward placed "for signs and for seasons"; in both, the
number seven is especially sacred, giving rise to a sacred division of
time and to much else. It may be added that, with many other features in
the Hebrew legends evidently drawn from the Chaldean, the account of the
creation in each is followed by a legend regarding "the fall of man" and
a deluge, many details of which clearly passed in slightly modified form
from the Chaldean into the Hebrew accounts.
It would have been a miracle indeed if these primitive conceptions,
wrought out with so much poetic vigour in that earlier civilization
on the Tigris and Euphrates, had failed to influence the Hebrews, who
during the most plastic periods of their development were under the
tutelage of their Chaldean neighbours. Since the researches of Layard,
George Smith, Oppert, Schrader, Jensen, Sayce, and their compeers, there
is no longer a reasonable doubt that this ancient view of the world,
elaborated if not originated in that earlier civilization, came thence
as a legacy to the Hebrews, who wrought it in a somewhat disjointed but
mainly monotheistic form into the poetic whole which forms one of the
most precious treasures of ancient thought preserved in the book of
Genesis.
Thus it was that, while the idea of a simple material creation literally
by the hands and fingers or voice of the Creator became, as we have
seen, the starting-point of a powerful stream of theological thought,
and while this stream was swollen from age to age by contributions from
the fathers, doctors, and learned divines of the Church, Catholic
and Protestant, there was poured into it this lesser current, always
discernible and at times clearly separated from it--a current of belief
in a process of evolution.
The Rev. Prof. Sayce, of Oxford, than whom no English-speaking scholar
carries more weight in a matter of this kind, has recently declared his
belief that the Chaldaeo-Babylonian theory was the undoubted source of
the similar theory propounded by the Ionic philosopher Anaximander--the
Greek thinkers deriving this view from the Babylonians through the
Phoenicians; he also allows that from the same source its main features
were adopted into both the accounts given in the first of our
sacred books, and in this general view the most eminent Christian
Assyriologists concur.
It is true that these sacred accounts of ours contradict each other. In
that part of the first or Elohistic account given in the first chapter
of Genesis the WATERS bring forth fishes, marine animals, and birds
(Genesis, i, 20); but in that part of the second or Jehovistic account
given in the second chapter of Genesis both the land animals and birds
are declared to have been created not out of the water, but "OUT OF THE
GROUND" (Genesis, ii, 19).
The dialectic skill of the fathers was easily equal to explaining away
this contradiction; but the old current of thought, strengthened by both
these legends, arrested their attention, and, passing through the
minds of a succession of the greatest men of the Church, influenced
theological opinion deeply, if not widely, for ages, in favour of an
evolution theory.
But there was still another ancient source of evolution ideas.
Thoughtful men of the early civilizations which were developed along the
great rivers in the warmer regions of the earth noted how the sun-god as
he rose in his fullest might caused the water and the rich soil to teem
with the lesser forms of life. In Egypt, especially, men saw how
under this divine power the Nile slime brought forth "creeping things
innumerable." Hence mainly this ancient belief that the animals and
man were produced by lifeless matter at the divine command, "in the
beginning," was supplemented by the idea that some of the lesser
animals, especially the insects, were produced by a later evolution,
being evoked after the original creation from various sources, but
chiefly from matter in a state of decay.
This crude, early view aided doubtless in giving germs of a better
evolution theory to the early Greeks. Anaximander, Empedocles,
Anaxagoras, and, greatest of all, Aristotle, as we have seen, developed
them, making their way at times by guesses toward truths since
established by observation. Aristotle especially, both by speculation
and observation, arrived at some results which, had Greek freedom
of thought continued, might have brought the world long since to its
present plane of biological knowledge; for he reached something like the
modern idea of a succession of higher organizations from lower, and made
the fruitful suggestion of "a perfecting principle" in Nature.
With the coming in of Christian theology this tendency toward a yet
truer theory of evolution was mainly stopped, but the old crude view
remained, and as a typical example of it we may note the opinion of St.
Basil the Great in the fourth century. Discussing the work of creation,
he declares that, at the command of God, "the waters were gifted with
productive power"; "from slime and muddy places frogs, flies, and gnats
came into being"; and he finally declares that the same voice which gave
this energy and quality of productiveness to earth and water shall be
similarly efficacious until the end of the world. St. Gregory of Nyssa
held a similar view.
This idea of these great fathers of the Eastern Church took even
stronger hold on the great father of the Western Church. For St.
Augustine, so fettered usually by the letter of the sacred text, broke
from his own famous doctrine as to the acceptance of Scripture and
spurned the generally received belief of a creative process like that by
which a toymaker brings into existence a box of playthings. In his great
treatise on Genesis he says: "To suppose that God formed man from the
dust with bodily hands is very childish.... God neither formed man with
bodily hands nor did he breathe upon him with throat and lips."
St. Augustine then suggests the adoption of the old emanation or
evolution theory, shows that "certain very small animals may not have
been created on the fifth and sixth days, but may have originated later
from putrefying matter," argues that, even if this be so, God is still
their creator, dwells upon such a potential creation as involved in the
actual creation, and speaks of animals "whose numbers the after-time
unfolded."
In his great treatise on the Trinity--the work to which he devoted the
best thirty years of his life--we find the full growth of this opinion.
He develops at length the view that in the creation of living beings
there was something like a growth--that God is the ultimate author,
but works through secondary causes; and finally argues that certain
substances are endowed by God with the power of producing certain
classes of plants and animals.(19)
(19) For the Chaldean view of creation, see George Smith, Chaldean
Account of Genesis, New York, 1876, pp. 14,15, and 64-86; also Lukas, as
above; also Sayce, Religion of the Ancient Babylonians, Hibbert Lectures
for 1887, pp. 371 and elsewhere; as to the fall of man, Tower of Babel,
sacredness of the number seven, etc., see also Delitzsch, appendix to
the German translation of Smith, pp. 305 et seq.; as to the almost exact
adoption of the Chaldean legends into the Hebrew sacred account, see
all these, as also Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte
Testament, Giessen, 1883, early chapters; also article Babylonia in
the Encyclopedia Britannica; as to similar approval of creation by the
Creator in both accounts, see George Smith, p. 73; as to the migration
of the Babylonian legends to the Hebrews, see Schrader, Whitehouse's
translation, pp. 44,45; as to the Chaldaean belief ina solid firmament,
while Schrader in 1883 thought it not proved, Jensen in 1890 has found
it clearly expresses--see his Kosmologie der Babylonier, pp.9 et seq.,
also pp. 304-306, and elsewhere. Dr. Lukas in 1893 also fully accepts
this view of a Chaldean record of a "firmament"--see Kosmologie, pp.
43, etc.; see also Maspero and Sayce, the Dawn of Civilization, and for
crude early ideas of evolution in Egypt, see ibid., pp. 156 et seq.
For the seven-day week among the Chaldeans and rest on the seventh day,
and the proof that even the name "Sabbath" is of Chaldean origin, see
Delitzsch, Beiga-ben zu Smith's Chald. Genesis, pp. 300 and 306; also
Schrader; for St. Basil, see Hexaemeron and Homilies vii-ix; but for the
steadfastness of Basil's view in regard to the immutability of species,
see a Catholic writer on evolution and Faith in the Dublin Review for
July, 1871, p. 13; for citations of St. Augustine on Genesis, see the De
Genesi contra Manichoeos, lib. ii, cap. 14, in Migne, xxxiv, 188,--lib.
v, cap. 5 and cap. 23,--and lib vii, cap I; for the citations from his
work on the Trinity, see his De Trinitate, lib. iii, cap. 8 and 9, in
Migne, xlii, 877, 878; for the general subject very fully and adequately
presented, see Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin, New York, 1894, chaps.
ii and iii.
This idea of a development by secondary causes apart from the original
creation was helped in its growth by a theological exigency. More and
more, as the organic world was observed, the vast multitude of petty
animals, winged creatures, and "creeping things" was felt to be a
strain upon the sacred narrative. More and more it became difficult to
reconcile the dignity of the Almighty with his work in bringing each
of these creatures before Adam to be named; or to reconcile the human
limitations of Adam with his work in naming "every living creature"; or
to reconcile the dimensions of Noah's ark with the space required for
preserving all of them, and the food of all sorts necessary for their
sustenance, whether they were admitted by twos, as stated in one
scriptural account, or by sevens, as stated in the other.
The inadequate size of the ark gave especial trouble. Origen had dealt
with it by suggesting that the cubit was six times greater than had been
supposed. Bede explained Noah's ability to complete so large a vessel by
supposing that he worked upon it during a hundred years; and, as to the
provision of food taken into it, he declared that there was no need of
a supply for more than one day, since God could throw the animals into
a deep sleep or otherwise miraculously make one day's supply sufficient;
he also lessened the strain on faith still more by diminishing
the number of animals taken into the ark--supporting his view upon
Augustine's theory of the later development of insects out of carrion.
Doubtless this theological necessity was among the main reasons which
led St. Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century, to incorporate
this theory, supported by St. Basil and St. Augustine, into his great
encyclopedic work which gave materials for thought on God and Nature to
so many generations. He familiarized the theological world still further
with the doctrine of secondary creation, giving such examples of it as
that "bees are generated from decomposed veal, beetles from horseflesh,
grasshoppers from mules, scorpions from crabs," and, in order to give
still stronger force to the idea of such transformations, he dwells
on the biblical account of Nebuchadnezzar, which appears to have taken
strong hold upon medieval thought in science, and he declares that
other human beings had been changed into animals, especially into swine,
wolves, and owls.
This doctrine of after-creations went on gathering strength until, in
the twelfth century, Peter Lombard, in his theological summary, The
Sentences, so powerful in moulding the thought of the Church, emphasized
the distinction between animals which spring from carrion and those
which are created from earth and water; the former he holds to have been
created "potentially" the latter "actually."
In the century following, this idea was taken up by St. Thomas Aquinas
and virtually received from him its final form. In the Summa, which
remains the greatest work of medieval thought, he accepts the idea that
certain animals spring from the decaying bodies of plants and animals,
and declares that they are produced by the creative word of God either
actually or virtually. He develops this view by saying, "Nothing was
made by God, after the six days of creation, absolutely new, but it was
in some sense included in the work of the six days"; and that "even
new species, if any appear, have existed before in certain native
properties, just as animals are produced from putrefaction."
The distinction thus developed between creation "causally" or
"potentially," and "materially" or "formally," was made much of by
commentators afterward. Cornelius a Lapide spread it by saying that
certain animals were created not "absolutely," but only "derivatively,"
and this thought was still further developed three centuries later by
Augustinus Eugubinus, who tells us that, after the first creative energy
had called forth land and water, light was made by the Almighty, the
instrument of all future creation, and that the light called everything
into existence.
All this "science falsely so called," so sedulously developed by the
master minds of the Church, and yet so futile that we might almost
suppose that the great apostle, in a glow of prophetic vision, had
foreseen it in his famous condemnation, seems at this distance very
harmless indeed; yet, to many guardians of the "sacred deposit of
doctrine" in the Church, even so slight a departure from the main
current of thought seemed dangerous. It appeared to them like pressing
the doctrine of secondary causes to a perilous extent; and about the
beginning of the seventeenth century we have the eminent Spanish Jesuit
and theologian Suarez denouncing it, and declaring St. Augustine a
heretic for his share in it.
But there was little danger to the older idea just then; the main
theological tendency was so strong that the world kept on as of old.
Biblical theology continued to spin its own webs out of its own bowels,
and all the lesser theological flies continued to be entangled in them;
yet here and there stronger thinkers broke loose from this entanglement
and helped somewhat to disentangle others.(20)
(20) For Bede's view of the ark and the origin of insects, see his
Hexaemeron, i and ii; for Isidore, see the Etymologiae, xi, 4, and xiii,
22; for Peter Lombard, see Sent., lib. ii, dist. xv, 4 (in Migne,
cxcii, 682); for St. Thomas Aquinas as to the laws of Nature, see Summae
Theologica, i, Quaest. lxvii, art. iv; for his discussion on Avicenna's
theory of the origin of animals, see ibid., i Quaest. lxxi, vol. i,
pp. 1184 and 1185, of Migne's edit.; for his idea as to the word of God
being the active producing principle, see ibid., i, Quaest. lxxi, art.
i; for his remarks on species, see ibid, i, Quaest. lxxii, art. i;
for his ideas on the necessity of the procreation of man, see ibid, i,
Quaest. lxxii, art. i; for the origin of animals from putrefaction,
see ibid, i, Quaest. lxxix, art. i, 3; for Cornelius a Lapide on the
derivative creation of animals, see his In Genesim Comment., cap. i,
cited by Mivart, Genesis of Species, p. 282; for a reference to Suarez's
denunciation of the view of St. Augustine, see Huxley's Essays.
At the close of the Middle Ages, in spite of the devotion of the
Reformed Church to the letter of Scripture, the revival of learning and
the great voyages gave an atmosphere in which better thinking on the
problems of Nature began to gain strength. On all sides, in every field,
men were making discoveries which caused the general theological view to
appear more and more inadequate.
First of those who should be mentioned with reverence as beginning to
develop again that current of Greek thought which the system drawn
from our sacred books by the fathers and doctors of the Church had
interrupted for more than a thousand years, was Giordano Bruno. His
utterances were indeed vague and enigmatical, but this fault may well be
forgiven him, for he saw but too clearly what must be his reward for
any more open statements. His reward indeed came--even for his faulty
utterances--when, toward the end of the nineteenth century, thoughtful
men from all parts of the world united in erecting his statue on the
spot where he had been burned by the Roman Inquisition nearly three
hundred years before.
After Bruno's death, during the first half of the seventeenth century,
Descartes seemed about to take the leadership of human thought: his
theories, however superseded now, gave a great impulse to investigation
then. His genius in promoting an evolution doctrine as regards the
mechanical formation of the solar system was great, and his mode of
thought strengthened the current of evolutionary doctrine generally; but
his constant dread of persecution, both from Catholics and Protestants,
led him steadily to veil his thoughts and even to suppress them. The
execution of Bruno had occurred in his childhood, and in the midst of
his career he had watched the Galileo struggle in all its stages. He had
seen his own works condemned by university after university under the
direction of theologians, and placed upon the Roman Index. Although
he gave new and striking arguments to prove the existence of God, and
humbled himself before the Jesuits, he was condemned by Catholics and
Protestants alike. Since Roger Bacon, perhaps, no great thinker had been
so completely abased and thwarted by theological oppression.
Near the close of the same century another great thinker, Leibnitz,
though not propounding any full doctrine on evolution, gave it an
impulse by suggesting a view contrary to the sacrosanct belief in the
immutability of species--that is, to the pious doctrine that every
species in the animal kingdom now exists as it left the hands of the
Creator, the naming process by Adam, and the door of Noah's ark.
His punishment at the hands of the Church came a few years later, when,
in 1712, the Jesuits defeated his attempt to found an Academy of Science
at Vienna. The imperial authorities covered him with honours, but the
priests--ruling in the confessionals and pulpits--would not allow
him the privilege of aiding his fellow-men to ascertain God's truths
revealed in Nature.
Spinoza, Hume, and Kant may also be mentioned as among those whose
thinking, even when mistaken, might have done much to aid in the
development of a truer theory had not the theologic atmosphere of their
times been so unpropitious; but a few years after Leibnitz's death came
in France a thinker in natural science of much less influence than any
of these, who made a decided step forward.
Early in the eighteenth century Benoist de Maillet, a man of the world,
but a wide observer and close thinker upon Nature, began meditating
especially upon the origin of animal forms, and was led into the idea of
the transformation of species and so into a theory of evolution, which
in some important respects anticipated modern ideas. He definitely,
though at times absurdly, conceived the production of existing species
by the modification of their predecessors, and he plainly accepted one
of the fundamental maxims of modern geology--that the structure of the
globe must be studied in the light of the present course of Nature.
But he fell between two ranks of adversaries. On one side, the Church
authorities denounced him as a freethinker; on the other, Voltaire
ridiculed him as a devotee. Feeling that his greatest danger was from
the orthodox theologians, De Maillet endeavoured to protect himself
by disguising his name in the title of his book, and by so wording its
preface and dedication that, if persecuted, he could declare it a mere
sport of fancy; he therefore announced it as the reverie of a Hindu sage
imparted to a Christian missionary. But this strategy availed nothing:
he had allowed his Hindu sage to suggest that the days of creation named
in Genesis might be long periods of time; and this, with other ideas of
equally fearful import, was fatal. Though the book was in type in 1735,
it was not published till 1748--three years after his death.
On the other hand, the heterodox theology of Voltaire was also aroused;
and, as De Maillet had seen in the presence of fossils on high mountains
a proof that these mountains were once below the sea, Voltaire,
recognising in this an argument for the deluge of Noah, ridiculed the
new thinker without mercy. Unfortunately, some of De Maillet's vagaries
lent themselves admirably to Voltaire's sarcasm; better material for it
could hardly be conceived than the theory, seriously proposed, that the
first human being was born of a mermaid.
Hence it was that, between these two extremes of theology, De Maillet
received no recognition until, very recently, the greatest men of
science in England and France have united in giving him his due. But
his work was not lost, even in his own day; Robinet and Bonnet pushed
forward victoriously on helpful lines.
In the second half of the eighteenth century a great barrier was thrown
across this current--the authority of Linnaeus. He was the most eminent
naturalist of his time, a wide observer, a close thinker; but the
atmosphere in which he lived and moved and had his being was saturated
with biblical theology, and this permeated all his thinking.
He who visits the tomb of Linnaeus to-day, entering the beautiful
cathedral of Upsala by its southern porch, sees above it, wrought in
stone, the Hebrew legend of creation. In a series of medallions, the
Almighty--in human form--accomplishes the work of each creative day. In
due order he puts in place the solid firmament with the waters above it,
the sun, moon, and stars within it, the beasts, birds, and plants below
it, and finishes his task by taking man out of a little hillock of "the
earth beneath," and woman out of man's side. Doubtless Linnaeus, as he
went to his devotions, often smiled at this childlike portrayal. Yet
he was never able to break away from the idea it embodied. At times, in
face of the difficulties which beset the orthodox theory, he ventured
to favour some slight concessions. Toward the end of his life he timidly
advanced the hypothesis that all the species of one genus constituted
at the creation one species; and from the last edition of his Systema
Naturae he quietly left out the strongly orthodox statement of the
fixity of each species, which he had insisted upon in his earlier works.
But he made no adequate declaration. What he might expect if he openly
and decidedly sanctioned a newer view he learned to his cost; warnings
came speedily both from the Catholic and Protestant sides.
At a time when eminent prelates of the older Church were eulogizing
debauched princes like Louis XV, and using the unspeakably obscene
casuistry of the Jesuit Sanchez in the education of the priesthood as to
the relations of men to women, the modesty of the Church authorities was
so shocked by Linnaeus's proofs of a sexual system in plants that for
many years his writings were prohibited in the Papal States and in
various other parts of Europe where clerical authority was strong enough
to resist the new scientific current. Not until 1773 did one of the
more broad-minded cardinals--Zelanda--succeed in gaining permission that
Prof. Minasi should discuss the Linnaean system at Rome.
And Protestantism was quite as oppressive. In a letter to Eloius,
Linnaeus tells of the rebuke given to science by one of the great
Lutheran prelates of Sweden, Bishop Svedberg. From various parts of
Europe detailed statements had been sent to the Royal Academy of Science
that water had been turned into blood, and well-meaning ecclesiastics
had seen in this an indication of the wrath of God, certainly against
the regions in which these miracles had occurred and possibly against
the whole world. A miracle of this sort appearing in Sweden, Linnaeus
looked into it carefully and found that the reddening of the water
was caused by dense masses of minute insects. News of this explanation
having reached the bishop, he took the field against it; he denounced
this scientific discovery as "a Satanic abyss" (abyssum Satanae), and
declared "The reddening of the water is NOT natural," and "when God
allows such a miracle to take place Satan endeavours, and so do his
ungodly, self-reliant, self-sufficient, and worldly tools, to make it
signify nothing." In face of this onslaught Linnaeus retreated; he tells
his correspondent that "it is difficult to say anything in this matter,"
and shields himself under the statement "It is certainly a miracle that
so many millions of creatures can be so suddenly propagated," and "it
shows undoubtedly the all-wise power of the Infinite."
The great naturalist, grown old and worn with labours for science, could
no longer resist the contemporary theology; he settled into obedience
to it, and while the modification of his early orthodox view was, as we
have seen, quietly imbedded in the final edition of his great work, he
made no special effort to impress it upon the world. To all appearance
he continued to adhere to the doctrine that all existing species had
been created by the Almighty "in the beginning," and that since "the
beginning" no new species had appeared.
Yet even his great authority could not arrest the swelling tide;
more and more vast became the number of species, more and more
incomprehensible under the old theory became the newly ascertained
facts in geographical distribution, more and more it was felt that the
universe and animated beings had come into existence by some process
other than a special creation "in the beginning," and the question was
constantly pressing, "By WHAT process?"
Throughout the whole of the eighteenth century one man was at work on
natural history who might have contributed much toward an answer to this
question: this man was Buffon. His powers of research and thought were
remarkable, and his gift in presenting results of research and thought
showed genius. He had caught the idea of an evolution in Nature by the
variation of species, and was likely to make a great advance with it;
but he, too, was made to feel the power of theology.
As long as he gave pleasing descriptions of animals the Church petted
him, but when he began to deduce truths of philosophical import the
batteries of the Sorbonne were opened upon him; he was made to know that
"the sacred deposit of truth committed to the Church" was, that "in the
beginning God made the heavens and the earth" and that "all things were
made at the beginning of the world." For his simple statement of truths
in natural science which are to-day truisms, he was, as we have seen,
dragged forth by the theological faculty, forced to recant publicly, and
to print his recantation. In this he announced, "I abandon everything in
my book respecting the formation of the earth, and generally all which
may be contrary to the narrative of Moses."(21)
(21) For Descartes and his relation to the Copernican theory, see
Saisset, Descartes et ses Precurseurs; also Fouillee, Descartes, Paris,
1893, chaps. ii and iii; also other authorities cited in my chapter
on Astronomy; for his relation to the theory of evolution, see the
Principes de Philosophie, 3eme partie, S 45. For de Maillet, see
Quatrefages, Darwin et ses Precurseurs francais, chap i, citing
D'Archiac, Paleontologie, Stratigraphie, vol. i; also, Perrier, La
Philosophie zoologique avant Darwin, chap. vi;
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